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CHARACTER 
PHOTOGRAPHY 



CHAPTERS ON 

THE DEVELOPING PROCESS 
IN THE BETTER LIFE 



BY 
REV. A. C. WELCH 



CINCINNATI: JENNINGS & PYE 
NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 






THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Copies Received 

! .-' 


Copyright 

CLASS 1 ^- 

COPY 


ENTRV 

KXc No. 
6 
s. ^ 



COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY 
JENNINGS & PYE 









DEDICATED TO MY WIFE, 

WHO INSPIRED AND ENCOURAGED 

THIS VOLUME 



CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

Perspective, - - 7 

Introduction, 9 

I. Composite Pictures, 13 

II. Time-Exposures, 27 

III. Look Pleasant, - - - - - - 41 

IV. In Groups, - - 57 

V. Down by the Old Home, - - - - - 73 

VI. Nature Studies, 91 

VII. Battle Scenes, - - - - - - - 107 

VIII. Historic Views, 123 

IX. On Crowded Streets, 139 

X. In Quiet Nooks, 155 

XI. In the Dark Room, - - - - 171 

XII. The Developing Lamp, - - - - 189 

XIII. Lights and Shadows, 203 

XIV. Blue Prints, 219 

XV. Defective Negatives, 233 

XVI. Finishing Touches, 247 



PERSPECTIVE 

/ T*HIS is an age of photography. The de'vel- 
■*" opment of this art and the ease with which 
pictures are now taken, make it a means of 
pleasure as well as profit. The Kodak is a part 
of the modern tourist's outfit, and he returns 
from his trip with many a picture, a bit of scen- 
ery, a view of some old ruin or shady nook, or 
a scene of active life, to treasure in after years 
as a memento of a tour. So, as one upon a 
journey, we have taken some pen-pictures of 
the views in life's quiet places and busy thor- 
oughfares. In the realm of medical science and 
surgery, photographic light has been success- 
fully used to detect disease and assist in its eradi- 
cation. So we have sought its aid to discover 
some of the causes of success and failure. In 
modern detective methods the police are accus- 
tomed to form what they call a "verbal picture" 

7 



8 Perspective 

of the criminal to aid in his detection. So we 
have drawn some portraits that may assist us 
in recognizing the influences that might lead 
astray. We have aimed, however, not only to 
have a "rogues' gallery," but also to present 
some dear familiar faces, some cheerful scenes 
and hopeful views, a reflection of the good and 
pure and noble, that, looking upon them, all 
might be made better and seek to catch their 
spirit. With this hope we send this volume 
forth. 



LOOKING THROUGH THE 
CAMERA 

"piCTURE-"MAKING" is very largely given 
over to photography. The Kodak and 
camera often take the place of the pencil and 
the brush. Every person is fast becoming his 
own artist. 

When the writer was a boy, pictures were 
almost as rare as pianos in the home. Few 
books were illustrated, and happy was the fam- 
ily whose children grew up under the tuition of 
the "picture-books." 

What revelations and discoveries sunshine 
and printing, improved methods, and skilled 
workmanship have made since then ! The fences 
are decorated with portraits and paintings which 
would have made a palace of a cabin fifty years 
ago. No traveler goes abroad now who does 
not bring his journeys home with him. The 

9 



io Looking through the Camera 

Bull's-Eye, Cartridge, or Panorama Kodaks are 
more the companions of the American tourist 
than the Baedeker Guides. 

I have been invited to look through the 
camera which Dr. Welch has made use of in 
illustrating this book, and to present his pic- 
tures to the many lovers of art, who are con- 
stantly looking for new prints. This I can do 
cheerfully, because of the aim of the pictures. 

Much as "the artist," in the beginning, was 
slow to recognize in the photographer anything 
more than the "trade" of the printer, very soon 
he was induced to find in him, and in "taking" 
the best photographs, the evidence of not only 
skill, but genius. If it is "upon the film cart- 
ridge that the success of the Kodak system is 
based," it is not wholly upon the camera that 
the success of the photographer is based. "It 
is the treating of the commonplace with the 
feeling of the sublime that gives to art its true 
power." 

The picture of the photographer can be 
analyzed as certainly as the painting of the por- 



Looking through the Camera u 

trait or the landscape. There is as much indi- 
viduality revealed in the selection of the subject 
or object to be photographed, as there is need 
of apprenticeship in the selection of the lens for 
the camera and the sensitive paper for the pic- 
ture, and the use of both; there is as much accu- 
racy of sight and delicacy of movement in find- 
ing the focus, and artistic sense in adjusting the 
light and shade for the finished photograph, as 
there must be the best training and the perfect 
taste in the painter who secures harmony of 
colors and perspective in the accurate reproduc- 
tion of the landscape. 

When the artist assumes to go further and 
reproduce the life and experience of the men 
and women whom he has photographed, and 
not only at the time the picture is taken, but 
during all the various periods through which 
they have lived, the photography must have a 
penetrative quality, and wideness of range, and 
knowledge which few photographers or painters 
have exhibited hitherto. Such conception, when 
accurately and brilliantly expressed, has pro- 



12 Looking through the Camera 

duced some of the best writers of fiction, as well 
as of biography. There is scope for poetic im- 
agination, faithful observation, sincere sympathy, 
long and large experience. 

Dr. Welch will inspire many another kindred 
spirit to take with him the Folding Pocket 
Kodak De Luxe, with the purpose of putting 
his own genius to "the supreme test of mechan- 
ical perfection;" he will do more — he will en- 
courage the persons who know their life-long 
pictures are to be taken, always to present the 
best possible appearance. 

J. W. Hamilton. 



Chapter I 
COMPOSITE PICTURES 



'God to thy teaching delegates the art 
To form the future man: the care be thine 
No shape unworthy from the marble start, 
Reptile or monster; but with just design 
Copy the heavenly model, and impart, 
As best thou canst, similitude divine." 

"Thoughts hardly to be packed 
Into a narrow act. 
All I could never be, 
All men ignored in me. 
This, I was worth to God, 
Whose wheel the pitcher shaped." 



\A/E are standing on the threshold; our 
^ * hand is on the door-latch ; what lies be- 
hind is yet hidden from our sight! We are in 
the vestibule of the temple of life. The beauties 
and glories, the mosaics and magnificence, the 
harmonies of the inner courts, have not yet 
burst upon our vision or reached our ears. We 
are standing with our faces towards the dawn- 
ing morning. What will the full daylight re- 
veal? What pages shall we write in the book 
of life? What pictures shall we paint on its 
canvas? 

Who can write the horoscope of the future? 
The world, with its beauty and variety, lies 
about us. The kaleidoscopic visions of life are 
unfolding. Behind us are the archives of his- 
tory; about us the romance of the present; be- 
fore us the prophecy of the future. We are 
gifted with intelligence; endowed with high and 
noble reasoning powers that make us akin to our 

Creator; with senses that tingle with emotions 

is 



16 Character Photography 

of delight, or shrink with disgust; with sensi- 
bilities that may respond to the highest possi- 
bilities, or may grovel in the dust. Before us 
are some golden opportunities and some ado- 
lescent difficulties. We are not predestined by 
inborn gifts to be either famous or infamous. 
It does not depend upon whether we live in a 
palace or a cot, nor whether we wear broad- 
cloth or are clad in homespun. There is much 
in the ennobling influence of wealth and cul- 
ture, but they are not a panacea for human ills. 
There is much to cause us to shrink from the 
squalor and filth and benumbing forces of pov- 
erty, but they are not always destitute of moral 
power. Amid the former, in pain and suffering, 
you may find the discontented, feverish brow. 
Sometimes in the other we see one who rests 
a wearied body on a couch of suffering with 
a calm trust and faith in God, and a halo of 
glory on the pale brow which makes the place 
near to heaven. 

How composite the pictures of life! Re- 
joicing and weeping! Smiles and tears! It is 
hard to say of which there is the most. They 
come in succession, like day and night, winter 



Composite Pictures 17 

and summer. How varied the experiences of 
life! Like the face of nature, constant variety. 
Rejoicing, hear it! Children singing, happy 
homes, peace and prosperity, honor and fame, 
sunshine under blue skies. Weeping, hear it! 
Bitter sobs, penury, poverty, empty cradles, 
crape on the door, hearts broken, idols fallen, 
names disgraced, tears of pain and separation. 
Blended experiences, laughter and tears, sun- 
shine and shadows. At times feasting and glad- 
ness, fountains and flowers, then somber shad- 
ows, funeral draperies, voices hushed, and bowed 
heads. To-day anthems of joy, to-morrow sighs 
and sobs. To-day a Baca of tears, to-morrow 
a Mount of Transfiguration. 

We look in at the window of a quiet cottage, 
and see a picture. There sits an aged widow, 
somber and serene, wasted and weary, with the 
far-away, misty look that tells that she will soon 
cross to the watchers on the evergreen shore. 
At her feet sits a sweet, beautiful child, with the 
morning of youth in her face. She is laying in 
the lap of the aged mother an offering of fra- 
grant flowers; and then she takes them and en- 
twines them amid the silver locks of hair. The 



1 8 Character Photography 

aged face brightens, the wrinkles fade out, and 
the heart grows glad. So in life we see the in- 
terlacing of flowers and childhood and age and 
weakness, as aureoles of hope and glimpses of 
immortality. 

The Bible, which is the true photograph of 
life, gives some strange composite pictures. 
The trees of life and of good and evil stood over 
against each other in the Garden of Eden. Abel 
is accepted, and Cain is rejected. Out of ante- 
diluvian wickedness emerges Noah, a preacher 
of righteousness, who built the ark, and thus 
perpetuated the human race. Babel lifts its 
tower heavenward amid a confusion of tongues; 
Joseph in Egypt, Moses before Pharaoh, Daniel 
in Babylon. Elijah the intrepid confronts Ahab 
and Jezebel in their wickedness, and John the 
Baptist defies Herod and Herodias. In the 
background of Christ's marvelous sacrifice on 
the cross on Calvary stands the perfidy and 
treachery of the evil-minded Judas. Lazarus 
sits in poverty at the rich man's gate, while he 
fares sumptuously. Ananias and Sapphira off- 
set Aquila and Priscilla, and against the faith- 
fulness of Timothy is the desertion of Demas. 



Composite Pictures 19 

And in John's vision is the New Jerusalem with 
its gold-paved streets and jasper walls, and be- 
yond the bottomless pit, with its worm that 
dieth not. 

Mental powers and faculties — what con- 
trasts in their possibilities! There is memory 
that stores in its consciousness the events of 
the past. It treasures up that which is gone. 
How pleasant its recollections! By its power 
we live over again the days gone by. But O, 
if the past has been stained with deeds of evil, 
and memory recalls the wrongs done and foul 
acts committed, then we wish they might be 
forgotten, be blotted from consciousness and 
sink into oblivion! 

Then, there is reason, God's highest gift to 
man. It is reason that elevates him, and lifts 
him to pre-eminence among the creatures of cre- 
ation. It is a noble power. How it crowns 
and blesses mankind! But let it be dethroned, 
shattered, or lost, then what a wreck! Then 
its possessor becomes an object of pity, from 
which we shrink in horror. See him a human 
fiend. Hear his demoniac screams, blasphem- 
ing and cursing the day of his birth. 



20 Character Photography 

Contrasted destinies! How full the world's 
history is of them! What is fame? A constant 
struggle for supremacy; and when it is attained, 
it is a glittering bauble, of flattering appear- 
ance, and a hollow mockery. In the memoran- 
dum of the murderer Fitzsimmons, who com- 
mitted suicide to escape the gallows, were writ- 
ten the words of the poet : 

" 'T is the wink of an eye, 't is the draught of a breath, 
From the bosom of health to the paleness of death." 

Power has made men tyrants, and they were 
slow to surrender control. The blindness of 
prejudice often shuts out the light. Bigotry 
prevents clear discrimination. Hoary custom 
rears its head against progress, and is revered 
as the ghost of the past to hinder reform. An- 
cestry and titled names have bound men to the 
graveyard of buried "isms." Stalwart creeds, 
venerable because of historic association, throw 
their thongs about men, and check liberal tend- 
encies. Conservatism lifts its hands in horror, 
and rings out the note of warning against the 
encroachments of progress. And thus are life's 
highest purposes thwarted, and its highest in- 
terests distorted. 



Composite Pictures 21 

"What is a man, 
If his chief good and market of his time 
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. 
Sure He who made us with such large discourse, 
Looking before and after, gave us not 
That capability and godlike reason 
To fust in us unused." 

Enslaved, the body groans under the lash! 
Imprisoned, the mind would be free ! Cramped 
and pinioned, the conscience lifts its voice to 
the Infinite One. 

" 'T is liberty alone that gives the flower 
Of fleeting life its luster and perfume; 
And we are weeds without it. All constraint 
Except that wisdom lays on evil men, 
Is evil; hurts the faculties; impedes 
Their progress in the road of science; blinds 
The eyesight of Discovery, and begets, 
In those who suffer it, a sordid mind, 
Bestial, a meager intellect, unfit 
To be the tenant of man's noble form." 

Ruskin said, "Life without industry is guilty, 
and industry without intellect is brutality." 
Another said, "To find the occupation for which 
one is fitted is to find the track for the locomo- 
tive." There is a golden mean between morbid 
spirituality and vulgar secularity. It is best to 
be neither monks nor worldlings. The low, base, 



22 Character Photography 

and sordid idea should be discarded. The grov- 
eling, vicious, vulgar, and profane should be 
rejected. Cant and shallow mimicry do not en- 
noble, elevate, or inspire, while the frivolity of 
voluptuousness degrades the mind allured by it. 
A single error is never long isolated. Like a 
spider's fiber, it becomes an entangling web. 
Its chains are crossed and twisted by the hard 
old fingers of blind habit until it becomes a 
cable that saps energy, robs vitality, and pur- 
loins freedom. Like the ancient Moloch, it de- 
mands blood and human life. 

In an Indian school we saw this motto : "If 
I deceive, whom do I cheat?" It contains a 
vital truth. It exacts honesty, it demands eth- 
ical justice. If always adopted, it would take 
many a tangled thread out of the industrial 
problem. It would be a just arbiter in the 
case of equity and justice. It overthrows much 
sophistry, and reaches ultimate principles. Its 
adoption ought to follow as a natural sequence 
to all toil and labor. 

Iconoclasts or builders, which? Some seem 
to feel their mission in life to be to tear down, 
to destroy, to uproot and overturn. The grand 



Composite Pictures 23 

mosaics of the master artist can be ruined by 
a rude hammer. It is easy to metamorphose 
Eden. A child can soon scatter the petals of a 
rose and destroy its beauty. How much better 
to be a builder; to form character; to plant truth; 
to attain to the dignity of highest manhood; to 
make Eden blossom, and to restore Paradise ! 

"The soul must overflow if thou 
Another's soul would reach; 
It needs the overflow of heart 
To give the life full speech." 

"A stumbling-block or a backlog, which?" 
A great orator said, "When a juryman resisted 
all my efforts to reach and affect him, and stu- 
pidly slept while I was aiming at his capture, 
I have wished that I might die." There are 
soul-sluggards who refuse to be aroused to any 
of life's high purposes. How different the glow- 
worm, who, though itself unseen, by the luster 
of its tiny lamp lights its little neighborhood of 
blade and flower! 

"For each heart grows rich in giving 
All its weal is living grain ; 
Seeds which mildew in the garner, 
Scattered, fill with gold the plain." 



24 Character Photography 

The parasite is a contemptible object, liv- 
ing for itself, and is a barnacle on the object to 
which it clings, not only not helping, but hin- 
dering. The motto on Eddystone Lighthouse 
was suggestive: "To give light, and to save life." 
So we have seen the world filled with light, and 
lives saved from wreckage by the inspiring ex- 
ample and heroic self-sacrifice of others; men 
and women who have shamed our selfishness, 
and who have made us feel the triumph of good- 
ness in this wicked and sinful world — lives 
against which the winds of adversity beat fierce 
and strong, and the waves of poverty lash with 
ceaseless fury, yet shine out like the great search- 
light, pure and clear; and their hands are al- 
ways outstretched to help and bless. These are 
beautiful pictures on the background of the 
world's indifference, that make us have hope 
for the future; like the marble of the ancient ca- 
thedral, that will endure when the staff and mor- 
tar of our modern temples of architecture will 
have crumbled; like the iris of God's love that 
will shine forever, while deeds of selfishness, like 
the rainbow in the west, will disappear with the 
mist and cloud. Would that every busy har- 



Composite Pictures 25 

bor, thronged by the crafts of trade, might have 
just such life-buoys to warn of danger, to light 
the way in the darkness, and to guide to safety 
past the shoals and rocks. How shall we con- 
duct ourselves amid life's problems, and how 
decide its issues? We must be free from bias 
and without prejudice. We are not to prejudge, 
but reserve our decision until we get all the 
facts. Nothing so mars life as to be controlled 
by blind prejudice or narrow party spirit; to 
be influenced by rancorous hate or deadly mal- 
ice, that gives a bias to the judgment, an evil 
bent to the conduct, and a dangerous trend to 
character. Like the jaundice, it discolors the 
face of life. Keep the windows of your mind 
open to the light. Prejudice shuts the blinds 
and keeps out the pure air. Knock off the 
hinges, take away the obstructions, and let in 
the sunlight. Again, we may be misled by 
mere sophistry. There are many glib pleaders, 
and they can make a falsehood look like the 
truth. If we believe their words, the deep-dyed 
criminal is as pure as the driven snow. Such 
pleading is shallow and superficial. There is 
much false and reckless construction and adroit 



26 Character Photography 

application or interpretation. One fact is worth 
a volume of sophistry. Keep your reasoning 
powers free, and, like the fabled infant Her- 
cules, strangle the twin monsters of superstition 
and dogmatism. We should beware of the in- 
fluence of the lobby. A sickly sentimentality 
carries sweet-scented flowers to the cell of the 
murderer, while the martyr for the truth is dis- 
owned. In Pilate's hall the multitude cried, 
"Crucify him !" although the judge's record said, 
"Nothing against him." All kinds of theories 
are in the air, and the galleries will applaud the 
most extravagant. It is our business to weigh 
the facts, make an index of basal truths, to ar- 
range, to assort, to classify, and then formulate 
a system from them. Thus will we bravely and 
truly meet the issues of life. 

"I will go forth 'mong men, not mailed in scorn, 
But in the armor of a pure intent. 
Great duties are before me and great aims, 
And whether crowned or crownless when I fall, 
It matters not so that my work is done. 
I 've learned to prize the quiet lightning deed, 
Not the applauding thunder at its heels, 
Which men call fame." 



Chapter II 
TIME-EXPOSURES 



'Large streams from little fountains flow, 
Tall oaks from little acorns grow." 

'Sweet it is the growth to trace 
Of worth, of intellect, of grace, 
In bosoms where our labors first 
Bid the young seed of springtime burst, 
And lead it on from hour to hour, 
To ripen into perfect flower." 



LIFE within a generation has been electrified 
-* in every department. It has become keen 
and intense. The most far-seeing influences 
of invention have been adapting the things in 
the world about us to our wants and necessi- 
ties. Man, by his touch of genius, is making 
the world a garden of beauty, and its valleys 
throb with the pulsations of life, as a result of 
his inventive skill. He has measured the dis- 
tance of the stars, united continent to continent 
with iron bands, and made the world a whis- 
pering gallery. He has grappled forces with 
hooks of steel, and harnessed them with iron 
bars. He paints all the colors of the rainbow, 
and chisels in the marble the form of angels. 
He has even sought to lift the veil of futurity 
and mark a shining pathway up to the skies. 
The mind, "the immortal mechanism of God's 
own hand," has not been neglected amid the 
whirl and rattle of stupendous machinery. It 

has had the focused light of the past centuries 

29 



30 Character Photography 

and the highest possible forces of educational 
development. This is the age and hour of man. 
With new purposes and broad shoulder he 
presses against the gates of the future. He 
makes every goal, like a traveler's tavern, a place 
to depart upon new adventures. 

"So live that you each year may be, 
While time glides softly by, 
A little farther from the earth, 
And nearer to the sky." 

The visions of life are ideal. They scan the 
prospect and see what it reveals. They bridge 
the chasms and tunnel the mountains. They 
turn the eyes of Columbus westward to a new 
world. They inspire the young Excelsiors to 
climb the mountain heights. They nerve the 
arm with the valor of achievement. They 

"Allure to brighter worlds, and lead the way." 

It is unwise to say you will undertake noth- 
ing until you see the way through. That would 
paralyze all human industry, stop all discovery, 
and defeat all aspiration. No man would have 
gone to the Klondike, the Pilgrim Fathers would 
never have crossed the briny deep, and no great 



Time-Exposures 31 

fact of science or philosophy would have been 
revealed. The power to do comes in the act 
of endeavor. The child can not walk until it 
tries, and the seed must be planted to grow. 
Greatness is demonstrated by the doing. 
Dreams and desire may idealize the future, but 
they do not make it. 

In the sturdy, romping boys about us we 
see the possibilities of the future. The germ of 
the great is in the little, the oak is in the acorn; 
the beginning is a prophecy of the end; growing 
lads are the statesmen of to-morrow. Manhood 
is inherent in boyhood. The boy is a man in 
embryo. The future kings of fortune are on 
the playgrounds to-day, already revealing the 
traits of character and mental characteristics that 
will make that future. Martin Luther was ac- 
customed, when a teacher, to appear before his 
class of boys with uncovered head, as a tribute 
to their future greatness. In the ancient time 
an organization of lads had for their motto, 
"Tremble, tyrants, when we grow up." A lady 
sitting in the gallery of the United States Senate 
turned to a friend and said, "The senators are 
only big boys." 



32 Character Photography 

George Eliot wrote : 

"Our deeds still travel with us from afar, 
And what we have been makes us what we are." 

The map of knowledge yet to learn is much 
like the one already explored; the lines and road- 
ways run in the same direction. 

Alice Cary says: 

"The hues that our to-morrows wear 
Are by our yesterdays forecast; 
Our future takes into itself 
The true impressions of our past." 

Yet not present attainment, but possible re- 
alization is the measure of our obligation; not 
how poor we are now, but how rich we will be. 
We are not to measure possibility by the strength 
of the puny babe, a mere prattler in its mother's 
arms, but by that of the developed, rounded-out, 
complete, stalwart man. The only time we put 
our resources down to hard-pan is when the 
assessor comes around. In the presence of our 
creditors we talk of resources estimated and 
enlarged by the realization of aspirations and 
ambitions for success. So in life's larger duties 
we have a right to draw on the future, not boast- 



Time-Exposures 33 

ingly, but honestly and hopefully. In its trans- 
actions we have the privilege of estimating the 
time element. As the twig represents the pos- 
sibility of fruit, so the inherent and innate man- 
hood represents the possible fruitage of a life. 
Time draws it out. 

"Heaven is not gained by a single bound, 
But we build the ladder by which we rise 
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, 
And we mount to its summit round by round." 

The years of life stretch before us, and they 
are worth the living. We must strive and strug- 
gle, but not expect to accomplish everything in 
twelve months. As the exogenous plants form 
one new layer a year, so we ought to endeavor 
to add something new and worthy to our being 
constantly. Watching hour by hour, we may 
not see the growth; but nevertheless there is no 
stagnation nor cessation, but steady, uninter- 
rupted development. "First the blade, then 
the ear; after that the full corn in the ear." My 
character to-day is, for the most part, the result 
of my thoughts and aspirations. Every temp- 
tation resisted, every sinful thought repressed, 
is giving impetus to the forces that bear us up- 
3 



34 Character Photography 

wards towards a richer life and a higher char- 
acter. 

"So, take and use thy work! 
My times be in thy hands! 
Perfect the cup as planned! 
Let age approve of youth, 
And death complete the same!" 

Under each clock in a certain Cleveland 
paint-factory is hung a neat glass sign, reading, 
"Do it now." It is the motto of the company, 
and is designed to impress each of the men em- 
ployed that the present is the all-important time. 

A business-man had a motto over his desk, 
reading, "Plan your work," and then right un- 
der it the words, "Work your plan." Difficul- 
ties are ever present, like Red Seas and like Jer- 
icho walls; but what we need is "grit and grip," 
a strong pull and a long pull. The great painter 
who finally bequeathed to the world an immor- 
tal masterpiece was he who toiled perhaps for 
years without recompense, and his success was 
due not only to genius, but also to the tireless 
industry he displayed. Grant's strongest forte 
was the holding-on faculty. Wellington said 
Waterloo depended on whether they or France 
could stand pounding the longest. Some one 



Time-Exposures 35 

asked Lincoln "if the war would close during his 
Administration." He answered, "I do n't 
know." "Then what are you going to do?" 
"Peg away, sir," was the reply. Sumner tele- 
graphed Stanton when President Johnson was 
trying to drive him from the Cabinet, "Stick!" 
The light-house of Alexandria was one of the 
seven wonders of the world. When it was being 
erected Ptolemy directed that his name be in- 
scribed on the base. The architect, however, 
inscribed his own name there, and then covered 
it with stucco, and on that wrote the king's 
name. Time wore off the outer covering and 
with it the king's name, and now only the name 
of the architect remains. 

Ruskin says, "It is better to build a beauti- 
ful human character than to erect a beautiful 
dome;" and Sir Humphrey Davy remarked, 
"My best discovery was Michael Faraday." 
What marvelous gifts of mind and character have 
been developed by the training of years! — gifts 
of song, like those possessed by Jenny Lind and 
Adelina Patti, who have thrilled the world with 
their melody; gifts of musical composition, like 
those manifested by Handel and Mozart; gifts 



36 Character Photography 

of poetry, like Whittier and Longfellow; gifts 
of oratory, like Webster and Clay; gifts of 
sculpture, like Powers and Millet; gifts of paint- 
ing, like Angelo and Munkacszy; gifts of gen- 
eralship, like Napoleon and Grant; gifts of states- 
manship, like Washington and Lincoln; gifts of 
benevolence and philanthropy, like Florence 
Nightingale and Clara Barton. What calls 
there are for just such gifts to-day everywhere 
in the world, from the marts of trade, from the 
legislative halls, from the Church and State! 

"To be, to do, to dare, 
As did our sire; 
To strive and never tire!" 

These calls are so urgent that sometimes 
we forget the time element in preparation and 
the necessity of laying deep and broad founda- 
tions for future usefulness. We need less "snap- 
shots" and more "time-exposures." Nothing 
will mitigate against highest success like a lack 
of preparation. There is no "short cut." 

Dr. Joseph Parker says: "Our business is 
not to build quickly, but to build upon a right 
foundation and in a right spirit. Life is more 
than a mere competition as between man and 



Time-Exposures 37 

man; it is not who can be done first, but who 
can work the best; it is not who can rise highest 
in the shortest time, but who is working most 
patiently and lovingly in accordance with the 
designs of God." 

We are familiar with the statement said to 
have been made by a professor in Oberlin Col- 
lege to a student, when asked if there was not 
a shorter course of study that he might pursue : 
"We do not grow gourds here, but oaks." We 
should make haste slowly. There is a fascina- 
tion in quickness. We are so anxious to accom- 
plish something, to reach the goal of ambition 
quickly. It is the bane of our modern life. It 
not only destroys the possibility of greatness, 
but it causes many to adopt methods of progress 
that are not legitimate, and saps, not only vital- 
ity, but morality as well. A rosebud will blos- 
som into a perfect flower more rapidly if cut 
and put into water, but it leaves no seed. So 
in our haste to get rich, to secure position, to 
achieve fame and greatness, we are destroying 
the very possibilities of perpetuating life; we 
are really cutting the bridges behind us along 
which others ought to travel to future achieve- 



38 Character Photography 

ment. It is said the future fruit of the orange- 
tree depends upon the size of the box it is planted 
in as a seedling. If the roots are cramped while 
young, they will not expand later on. So the 
mind is often cribbed and confined. The tree 
has a flowerpot to grow in, and the result is a 
dwarf instead of a towering oak. 

"Somewhere under the starry skies 
Waiteth for me a victor's prize, 
Waiteth a crown that I may wear, 
Waiteth a scepter that I may bear." 

Our lives have boundless capacities. We 
must soon choose whether these are to be devel- 
oped and brought out, or whether we will be 
content with a few general outlines. If God took 
millions of years to make this world and perfect 
it for a dwelling place for man; if he took cen- 
turies to unfold the purposes of his grace in re- 
demption, it seems as if it ought to teach us the 
lesson not to frustrate his plans for our highest 
development by undue haste, but quietly bide the 
time. Those thirty years of preparation at Naza- 
reth seem long in comparison with the three 
years of activity, but those were made possible 
by the preparation of the others. So let us re- 



Time-Exposures 39 

member we are building for eternity. Immor- 
tal destinies are depending upon the way we 
are using the present. We can well afford to 
take time if thereby we unfold in the soul capa- 
bilities which will reach beyond the world's 
boundaries, if we bring out those traits of char- 
acter which will endure through all eternity. 

"As when the weary traveler gains 

The height of some o'erlooking hill, 
His heart revives; across the plains 

He eyes his home, though distant still; 
Thus when the weary pilgrim views 

By faith his mansion in the skies, 
The sight his fainting strength revives, 

And wings his speed to reach the prize. 
' 'T is there/ he says, 'I am to dwell 

With Christ in realms of endless day, 
There I shall bid my cares farewell, 

And he will wipe my tears away.' " 



Chapter III 
LOOK PLEASANT 



"Hath thy heart sunshine? Shed it wide! 
The wearied world hath need of thee." 

"He had a face like a benediction." 

"It is infamy to die and not be missed." 



A RTISTIC results depend very largely upon 
**■ the pose of the subject. Very much de- 
pends upon ready acquiescence and harmonious 
response to the photographer's request, "Look 
pleasant, please." The features that are reflected 
on the larger canvas of life, and that go to make 
up the permanent results of character, are 
largely the result of the moods, the tempera- 
ment, and the dispositions manifest amid the 
varied experiences to which we are subject in 
the vicissitudes of time. A happy, joyous, bright, 
buoyant, and cheerful spirit has its correspond- 
ent reflection, while the sour, morose, and sullen 
disposition writes its impression in indelible char- 
acters. If the heart is cold and morbid, and the 
life is full of gloom and foreboding, it will shadow 
its portrait as it stands out in completeness. But 
the face that is beaming with smiles and the 
heart that is saturated with the spirit of gentle- 
ness, speaks with a rare beauty, and dwells in 
an atmosphere of cheerfulness. The beautiful 

43 



44 Character Photography 

life is the one that develops the finer graces, kin- 
dles the warmer sympathies, restrains the indul- 
gence of ill tempers, and cultivates instead an 
amiable disposition. Smiling instead of frown- 
ing, they are continually singing: 

"The road may be rough, but it will not be long; 
And I '11 smooth it with hope, I '11 cheer it with song." 

On the other hand we find plenty of melan- 
choly. The world is full of misanthropes, people 
who are cold and unsympathetic, suffering from 
bilious disorder and nervous depression. They 
are regular wet blankets, chilly as an iceberg, 
frigid as the North Pole, lifeless as a mummy, 
and emotionless as a tobacconist's sign. A 
Negro philosopher is quoted as saying, "Some 
folks make de mistake o' sendin' all de peace 
an' good will out o' deir hahts jes' as soon as 
de col' turkey is all et up an' it 's time to take 
de Christmas greens out'n de window." For the 
people who are ever and by choice in the shadow, 
and who never walk on the sunny side of the 
street, there is but little pity. They ought to 
be left to their own devices, but they ought to 
be compelled to let other people alone. 

Akin to this, and scarcely less destructive to 



Look Pleasant 45 

the real zest of life and the accomplishment of 
its higher purpose, is asceticism, with its stern 
rigor and inflexible ritual. Carried to its excess 
by monasticism, it makes religion gloomy and 
forbidding. Under its influence the so-called 
saint dwells apart in cloudless, inaccessible light. 
Christianity is not a long-faced, dreary monot- 
ony and other-worldliness. That is a mockery 
of the genuine Christ spirit. The true follower 
of Christ manifests a different spirit. He pub- 
lishes a different creed — the doctrine of sunshine. 
He fills the air with it, breathes it, lives in it, 
and sheds it all around. 

"He sows June fields with clover, and the world 
Broadcasts with little common kindnesses." 

Another hindrance to life's beauty is can- 
kering care. Little vexations, so trifling that 
they can hardly be traced in memory except by 
being magnified, are allowed to bedim the sky 
and bring frowns to the forehead. Little dis- 
appointments that are trivial at best make the 
life fretful and peevish, and spoil its quiet and 
peace. Like swarms of tiny gnats, they infest 
the heart and fill it with disquiet. 



46 Character Photography 

"Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt, 
And any grin, so merry, draws one out." 

Acid dropped on steel and allowed to remain 
will corrode it. So worries and anxieties and 
careworn questioning soil the life. Care is like 
a broken bottle in the pocket, it cuts the flesh. 

"Is life a fret and tangle, 

And everything gone wrong? 
Are friends a bit disloyal, 

And enemies too strong? 
Is there no bright side showing? 

Then — as a sage has said — 
'Polish up the dark side, 

And look at that instead.' 

The darkest plank of oak will show 

Sometimes the finest grain, 
The roughest rock will sometimes yield 

A gleaming golden vein; 
Do n't rail at fate, declaring 

That no brightness shows ahead, 
But 'polish up the dark side, 

And look at that instead!' " 

Life is full of exasperations. Our pathway- 
is often crossed. It is impossible but that of- 
fenses come. In fact, it would lose its zest if 
it were otherwise. We ought not to be quer- 
ulous, like the children for whom the little bird 
must come out and sing before they will get a 



Look Pleasant 47 

proper expression or sit still. The power of re- 
straining one's temper under provocation, by 
looking on the bright side of things under dis- 
couraging circumstances, and by not constru- 
ing a difference of opinion as a personal matter, 
is one of the choice attainments whose winsome- 
ness men always recognize and approve. It is 
a noble gift. Or perhaps we should more cor- 
rectly say, a rare cultivation. 

While John Henderson, of Bristol, England, 
was speaking, his opponent dashed a glass of 
wine into his face. He paused, and deliberately 
wiped his face, and then said : "This, sir, is a di- 
gression. Now, if you please, for the main argu- 
ment." Calm self-composure is a real posses- 
sion. "He that ruleth his spirit is better than 
he that taketh a city.' , Laughter and strength 
are often close of kin. Cheerfulness and sweet- 
ness of disposition are often as great a force in 
trying situations as sheer intellectual ability. A 
famous beauty broke a looking-glass because 
it showed a wrinkle in her face. Men have been 
as sensitive under the reproof that revealed a 
defect of character, and, like her, showed that 
the flaw was more than skin-deep. A mission- 



48 Character Photography 

ary in Jamaica asked a black boy, "Who are 
the meek?" "Those who give soft answers to 
rough questions," was the reply. The spirit dis- 
played by the old colored woman is likewise 
worthy of emulation. Said a white sister for 
whom old Aunt Hannah was washing: 

"Aunt Hannah, did you know that you have 
been accused of stealing?" 

"Yes, I hear'n about it," said Aunt Hannah, 
and went on with her washing. 

"Well, you won't rest under it, will you?" 
said the sister. 

Aunt Hannah raised herself up from her 
work, with a broad smile on her face, and, look- 
ing up full at the white sister, said : 

"De Lord knows I ain't stole nuthin', and 
I knows I ain't, an' life 's too short for me to 
be provin' an' splainin' all de time; so I jest goes 
on my way rejoicin'. They knows they ain't 
tellin' de truf, and they '11 feel ashamed and quit 
after awhile. If I can please de Lord, dat is 
enough for me." 

The critical spirit is another flaw on the re- 
flection of beauty. How hateful is carping, bit- 
ing sarcasm ! No talent is necessary, no capital 



Look Pleasant 49 

is needed, no brains are required, to set up in 
the grumbling business. It is easy to tear to 
pieces. Spilt ink will ruin the brussels carpet. 
A sharp tongue, piercing eyes, idle hands, and 
wayward feet, and the work is done. The jaun- 
diced eye transforms all good into evil. The 
slanderous tongue magnifies petty faults, and 
makes mountains out of mole-hills. Sad is the 
life that is controlled by such a spirit. It is a 
miserable state. It ossifies the heart, blinds the 
eye, dulls the sensibilities, destroys the finer feel- 
ings, and corrodes the whole life. Some one has 
truly said : 

"The faultfinder does not attract. There is 
something about his face, gait, and manner, as 
well as about his temper and words, that repels. 
Sweetness, gentleness, and charity are lacking 
in his composition, and people fight shy of him. 
Men become a bane to themselves and to so- 
ciety when dominated by a critical, carping, and 
harsh spirit." 

Do not be a croaker. Do not complain or 

criticise. Be an optimist. Doubt beclouds the 

spiritual sense. How it defeats life's purposes! 

Cast doubts and fears to the winds. "But," you 

4 



50 Character Photography 

say, "I am merely conservative." Conservatism 
is a big chunk that often stops the wheels of 
progress. It is possible to be conservative with- 
out blocking the way; but the great majority 
of such hinder instead of helping. What the 
world needs is a cheery message, tidings of hope 
which has in it no ring of possible defeat, and 
a courage which no Red Sea of difficulty can 
daunt. 

It is said that two Scotchmen, emigrating 
to California, each thought to take with him 
some emblem as a reminder of his beloved Scot- 
land. One chose a thistle-blossom, the seed of 
which was planted in the adopted State, and, 
increasing rapidly, it spread everywhere to an- 
noy and curse the agricultural districts. The 
other selected a swarm of honey-bees, which, 
transported to the paradise of flowers, made 
sweetest honey and continued more and more 
to aid and bless. In our chosen fields, which 
are we, thistle-blossoms or honey-bees? The 
life controlled by prejudice, rankling with secret 
hate, and contending feelings of envy, is full 
of unhappiness. Begrudge not your neighbor 
success, and do not meet his advances of friend- 



Look Pleasant 51 

ship with an angry scowl. Dig envy up, root 
and branch. It bears bitter fruit. It is a poison 
vine. 

"Fall not out upon the way, 
Short it is and soon will end. 
Better far to fly the fray 
Than to lose the friend." 

An unforgiving spirit is most cruel and 
hateful. It is like carrying vitriol around in the 
pocket to throw in somebody's face. It is sure 
to get spilled and to burn the flesh and spoil the 
clothes. It eats like a canker. The spirit of 
retaliation may lead to crime. Many a prisoner 
lies languishing in a cell because he allowed it 
to embitter his life. 

"Have you any old grudge you 'd like to pay, 
Any wrong laid up from a bygone day? 
Gather them all now, and lay them away 
When Christmas comes. 

Hard thoughts are heavy to carry, my friend, 
And life is short from beginning to end; 
Be kind to yourself, leave nothing to mend 
When Christmas comes." 

There are men we always like to meet be- 
cause they always have a kind word and a warm 
greeting, because they do not say hateful things, 



52 Character Photography 

because they forgive and forget, and because 
they always pour oil on troubled waters. Their 
lives are beautiful. Whittier says: 

"For still in mutual sufferance lies 
The secret of true living; 
Love scarce is love that never knows 
The sweetness of forgiving." 

It is our business to refresh and cheer, to 
perform angel ministries, to reach out the help- 
ing hand, to get under burdens, to assuage sor- 
row, to do nameless acts of kindness and love, 
to conciliate instead of tearing open wounds, to 
heal instead of wound, to play on heartstrings 
with the soft, tender touch of the skillful harpist, 
to give the cup of cold water, to lift out of the 
slough of despond, to speak the word of cheer 
by the wayside. Thus our very soul will be- 
come a fountain of light and joy and gladness, 
will become more and more the dominant mood 
of our life. 

"If I should see 
A brother languishing in sore distress, 
And I should turn and leave him comfortless, 

When I might be 
A messenger of hope and happiness, — 
How could I ask to have what I denied, 
In my own hour of bitterness supplied? 



Look Pleasant 53 

If I might share 
A brother's load along the dusty way, 
And I should turn and walk alone that day, 

How could I dare, 
When in the evening watch I knelt to pray, 
To ask for help to bear my pain and loss, 
If I had heeded not my brother's cross? 

If I might sing 
A little song to cheer a fainting heart, 
And I should seal my lips and sit apart, 

When I might bring 
A bit of sunshine for life's ache and smart, — 
How could I hope to have my grief relieved, 
If I kept silence when my brother grieved? 

And so I know 
That day is lost wherein I fail to lend 
A helping hand to some wayfaring friend; 

But if it show 
A burden lightened by the cheer I send, 
Then do I hold the golden hours well spent, 
And lay me down to sleep in sweet content." 

Life is a constant giving out. Like the 
flower, it emits fragrance. Like the sun, it gives 
light. Doing noble deeds, shedding blessings 
around, diffusing light, like an oasis in a desert, 
refreshing weary lives. If you would make your 
life happy and beautiful, join some "helping 
hand" society, and take up the ministry of 
mercy. 



54 Character Photography 

"Rouse to some work of high and holy love, 
And thou an angel's happiness shalt know, 
Shalt bless the earth; while in the world above, 

The good begun by thee shall onward flow 
In many a branching stream, and wider grow; 

The seed that in these few and fleeting hours 
Thy hands unsparing and unwearied sow 
Shall deck thy grave with amaranthine flowers, 
And yield thee fruits divine in heaven's imperial 
bowers." 

How life is refreshed by the presence of 
cheerful people, — those who manifest constant 
sweetness of spirit, and who are uniformly joy- 
ous! They are graceful because of their very 
gladness, and beautiful because they are bright. 
Silken cords of love twisted together draw us 
whether we will or not. Some people make you 
forget life's burdens, and the rippling wave of 
their laughter is as sweet music to the soul; 
it soothes and quiets. Better than a cloudless 
day for cheer, sweeter than the flowers for fra- 
grance, pure as the lily, modest as the daisy, 
sparkling as the mountain streams, singing songs 
clearer than the nightingale, lark, or linnet, their 
lives are full of rapturous joy, a very song of 
gladness, a hallelujah chorus, a shout of praise. 
With a buoyant spirit, a playful temperament. 




Look Pleasant 55 



faces baptized with the sunshine of smiles, they 
dispense the wine of life with a lavish hand. 

"A cheerful smile, a pleasant word, 

Which we can always give 
Perchance some drooping soul hath stirred, 

With strength to do and live. 
An act may be by us unmarked, 

But kenned by watchers near; 
The song which we unheeding sing, 

May strike another's ear." 

Especially is its spirit helpful in old age. It 
makes even the wrinkles smile. The brow of 
beauty may fade, but the radiance of sweet con- 
tentment makes a perennial halo of glory. "At 
eventide it shall be light." Brighter than the 
sparkle of her crown was the luster of the char- 
acter of Victoria, England's noble queen — in old 
age beloved by all for the beauty of her woman- 
hood, and in death mourned by all for the no- 
bility and sweetness of her life. Who does not 
shun crabbed age, with shriveled-up souls as well 
as bodies, and living on in perpetual gloom? 
Such lives have failed to gather any honey for 
this time of life, and sit repining and morose. 
Not so those who have met life's duties bravely, 
and conquered its difficulties. To such lives 



56 Character Photography 

the birds of peace and contentment are con- 
stantly singing melodies of perfect harmony. 
Heaven's portals are not very far distant, and 
some of its celestial music steals into the life. 
Like Moses on the mountain, their faces shine 
with a radiant beauty, and, like Stephen, "look- 
ing up steadfastly," they "see the heavens 
opened," and there is their eternal home. 



Chapter IV 



IN GROUPS 



"All are needed by each one, 
Nothing is good or true alone." 

; To thine own woes be not thy thoughts confined, 
But look around and think of all mankind." 



T^7"HAT countless multitudes throng the 
* * pathways of life ! All about us are teem- 
ing millions, and we rub shoulders and touch 
elbows in the busy jostle of active life. See the 
throngs! What a sea of faces! No two alike, 
a thronging mass, pushing, pressing, rushing 
along, some one way and some another, so di- 
verse the interests, so varied the occupations, 
so multiform the pursuits! Yet there is a unit 
in a crowd; even a mob has an affinity; so here 
there is some undercurrent, some subtile form 
of cohesion, some connecting link. Racial dis- 
tinctions, a Babel of voices, yet of common 
parentage and of one blood. 

Here is an immense army, hundreds of thou- 
sands strong. See it in the quiet of camp-life, 
where order is its first law; or on the march, 
in solid phalanx, man touching man, regiment 
fronting regiment, battalion supporting bat- 
talion, corps joined to corps. All is articulate 
with life and power and military discipline. 
Order and system mark every movement. All 

59 



60 Character Photography 

go forward with a single step, advance as one 
man. It is the mighty multitude, the great 
crowd properly organized. Thus in the asso- 
ciations of life, the organizations of society are 
designed to touch the seeming inharmonious 
elements and to blend their common interests, 
and produce a community of feeling by bringing 
all parts together. The home, the social life, 
the religious instinct, and the phases of govern- 
ment, are all factors in this union. Properly 
managed, they arrange and classify into com- 
ponent parts all these elements, and make them 
harmonious. The world is a great federation, 
bound together by ties that are indissoluble. 
Men have common pulse-beats, heart-touches, 
and deep inwrought sympathies. Society is a 
vast machinery and mechanism which fits to- 
gether wheel in wheel, cog in cog. How mar- 
velous the connection of man with man ! They 
are bound in mystic union by golden cords of 
influence, drawn by magnetic forces which act 
like leaven in assimilating them to each other. 
We are impressible for either good or bad, and 
we can not improve or injure ourselves without 
likewise helping or hindering others. The Al- 



In Groups 61 

mighty saw that it was not good for man to 
be alone, and made a helpmeet for him, and in 
the wider spheres of social and political life he 
needs also the help and co-operation of his fel- 
low-man. "Two are better than one," for by 
sympathy and fellowship they assist each other. 
Even Christ sent his disciples out two and two. 
Man is a trinity — body, mind, and spirit — but 
that does not make him complete alone. He 
needs contact with others. There is strength in 
a community of feeling, and there is a touch 
which makes all mankind akin. When the Bell 
Rock Lighthouse was built, the natural thought 
was, How will it withstand the storms that are 
to beat upon it? In the first storm to which it 
was exposed it was seen to tremble, and there 
was a feeling of danger. But when the builder 
heard it, he said it was tidings of joy, and he 
explained it in this way: Although it was built 
of separate blocks, the fact that they trembled 
showed that one block was so bound to the other 
that it became in fact a monolith, one single 
stone. So the bonds of humanity are so closely 
knit that we feel each other's woes. Occasion- 
ally there is a discordant note, an echo of Cain's 



62 Character Photography 

angry and revengeful question, "Am I my broth- 
er's keeper?" There is much self-indulgence 
which virtually says to all others, Take care of 
yourselves. The unsocial crustacean bores itself 
a hole in the sea-rock, and stays there all alone; 
and it has its prototype in communities — men 
who, absorbed in their own selfish interests, live 
totally unconscious of the great mass about 
them, who are their brothers and neighbors. 

A lady had been taking pictures of a family 
group with her Kodak. Several different group- 
ings of the family all together had been taken, 
when one of the little boys, in a confidential man- 
ner, called her aside and whispered, "Auntie, 
take me at a time,'' in other words, all alone. 
The child was father of the man; and here and 
there we see men separate themselves from the 
influences about them, and, alone and single- 
handed, fight the battles of life, in the vain im- 
agination that they can do it better that way. 
Some hobble on alone, footsore and weary, car- 
rying their own burdens, refusing to be com- 
forted, and drinking vinegar and gall. True, it 
is in some cases the result of bitter experiences, 
of misplaced confidence. They opened their 



In Groups 63 

hearts to some supposed friend, only to have them 
lacerated by the cruel darts of gossip, or ex- 
posed to the prying eyes of busybodies. So they 
close themselves now to sympathy and fellow- 
ship. Nevertheless, separate a man from his 
fellow-man, and you rob him of much that makes 
life noble and elevated. Exaltation of character 
and refinement of life come by association with 
the noble, true, and good. The man who goes 
out on the street with kindly feelings toward all 
men will have gracious greetings, pleasant as- 
sociations, and a joyous life. But the man who 
is afraid to meet his fellow-man, crosses the 
street to avoid him, is dwarfing his moral nature, 
and embittering his own life. He needs the ir- 
resistible power of human sympathy. 

Every man belongs to himself, and every 
man has a right to develop himself, body, intel- 
lect, and conscience, according to his best knowl- 
edge. We must hold to the sacredness and in- 
violableness of individual rights. But personal 
rights must not be set against the rights of so- 
ciety, nor personal liberty paraded as a hobby 
to cover wrong. 

"License they mean when they cry liberty." 



64 Character Photography 

Law must not be destroyed for personal lib- 
erty. Chaos is not freedom. Anarchy would 
lift the hand of every man against his brother. 
And such is not the law of life. 

A little boy was asked why he had two hands. 
His reply was, "One to help myself, and the other 
to help the other fellow." We shed an influence 
which, by the rule of accelerated force, gathers 
intensity as it spreads. No word we speak can 
be without its echo, and no act without its re- 
sult. Influence is the silent language of our 
lives, and it may act as a powerful magnet to 
attract and draw others toward us or be a re- 
pellent Power that shall drive them away. 

What a privilege it is to mingle with our 
fellow-men! This is not limited to immediate 
friends or intimate acquaintances; it may not al- 
ways be between congenial spirits; yet there 
should be a helpful, kindly, and affectionate feel- 
ing toward all. These meetings of life ought 
to be more than mere formalities or simple cour- 
tesies. It is not a mere dress parade. It ought 
to mean the touching of heartstrings, the broad- 
ening of thoughts and convictions that break up 
isolation, that broaden the scope of living, that 



In Groups 65 

kill sectionalism, that lead to unity of work and 
plans and purposes, that recognize common 
aims, and give a common feeling of manhood. 
It is well on life's journey to have interchanges 
of experiences and reflective comparisons of suc- 
cess. The true law of upbuilding ourselves is 
not by pushing another down, or, if he is down, 
refusing to lift him up. We ought not to rise 
over the prostrate form of another. Human 
hearts are not good stepping-stones. 

"I would die in some lone bower, 

Rather, When my race is run, 
With no mourners but a flower, 

And no watchers but the sun, 
Than to dwell within a palace, 

With the splendor of a king, 
And receive the tithe of malice, 

That a burdened people bring; 
Than to enter through fame's portals, 

With the noble and the great, 
Than to rise to the immortals 

O'er the ruins of a State." 

Even "Excelsiors" may need companionship, 
or at least a guide before the morning breaks. 
Such selfish ambition only ruins in the end. 
Honor and fame, won at the price of others' 
wretchedness, are dearly bought, and at best are 
5 



66 Character Photography 

only fleeting baubles. Better the gradual uplift- 
ing and ennobling of the mass than a pedestal 
of grandeur for the few, built on the foundation 
of ruthless oppression and bleeding hearts. 
There is an intermingling of interests, every part 
fitly joined together. The eye can not say unto 
the hand, "I have no need of thee." Success 
is uniform. It is mutual. You need not be afraid 
to give the key to others lest they unlock your 
treasures. There can be a helpful interchange 
of plans. There should be no rivalry or jealousy, 
but mutual helpfulness. We are traveling the 
same road, and we should not refuse to aid each 
other by the way. There is profit in the giving 
of the wealth of our heart love. Giving to help 
others never impoverishes, but rather enriches 
the life and increases its blessing. 

"What I gave I have, 
What I kept I lost." 

A lady who had a beautiful flower-garden was 
accustomed to cut the sweetest and most prom- 
ising buds, and put them into a basket and hang 
it by the roadside, for the school children who 
passed that way. A friend said, "Why do you 
thus rob yourself ?" She replied, "The more I 



In Groups 67 

cut, the more I have." So we do not lose by 
giving out of our love and sympathy, but rather 
gain in actual strength and power by the enrich- 
ing of our own hearts and lives. 

A plague was raging in Ireland. The priests 
gave out that if a man would take from his own 
fire a piece of burning peat and light his neigh- 
bor's fire with it, it would save him from the 
plague. It was a superstition, yet there was 
truth in it. Giving always blesses the life. There 
is no spendthrift like a noble heart. It does not 
know economy, and yet it is always rich. Crom- 
well found twelve silver statues in Westminster 
Cathedral. He asked, "Who are those expensive 
fellows up there?" And the answer was, "The 
disciples of Christ." "Ah," said he; "let them 
be taken down and melted up. Then, like Christ, 
they will go about doing good." What the world 
wants is concrete help. Men need sympathy 
more than they need bread. The great mass all 
about us are hungry for it. It is as heavenly 
manna to their starving hearts. They are famish- 
ing for it. 

When Father Taylor, the sailor preacher, was 
on his death-bed, some one suggested to him, 



68 Character Photography 

"The angels are all around you." Rousing, he 
said testily : "I do n't want angels. I want folks. 
Folks are better than angels." The world needs 
fraternal, brotherly love. It needs more of "the 
milk of human kindness, and less of the curd of 
selfishness." We must recognize the supremacy 
of disinterested love in its devotion to the wants 
of others. Under its inspiration the loftiest place 
of honor is the lowliest place of service. Look at 
the incarnate Son of God, stooping to the low- 
liest office; a servant of the people; instructing 
the benighted; comforting the afflicted; healing 
the sick; pardoning the guilty; washing the dis- 
ciples' feet. Henry Drummond says, "From self- 
ism to otherism is the supreme transition of 
history." The laws of self-sacrifice and co-oper- 
ation run through all the nature of things. The 
sacrifice of the individual for the common weal 
is always and everywhere a dominant principle. 
Nothing exists for its own sake alone. "No man 
liveth unto himself." The great, loving Father, 
whose infinite ministries of good and supply are 
for all, has implanted this principle in every hu- 
man heart. Every individual is intended by God 
to be a minister of good to the world, and every 



In Groups 69 

human being has a mission which is special to 
his fellow-man, and designed to be uplifting and 
helpful. The strong are to bear the infirmities 
of the weak, the rich are to help the poor, the 
high reach down and lift up the low, the wise 
teach the ignorant. It means a universal broth- 
erhood of all men. God in his Word teaches 
us this beautiful lesson, and all nature is full of 
sweet ministries. The sun burns to light the 
world; the gentle dew distills to moisten the 
grass and flowers; the white snow falls like a 
mantle of charity over the bleak, frozen earth to 
shelter and protect the rootlets, and in its melt- 
ing to send streams of sparkling water flowing 
down the valleys to produce fertility; the lichen 
casts its gray cloak over the aged ruin to beautify 
it and hide its crumbling walls; and the stars 
come out at night calmly to watch the lonely 
vigils, and only hide away when the beams of 
the morning break over an awakening world. 
So we are to enlighten darkened minds, to spread 
gentle influences, to refresh and cheer, to warm 
and clothe what is otherwise naked and desolate, 
to put the arms of strength about the decrepit 
and feeble, and hold them up, to stand as lone 



70 Character Photography 

sentinels amid the gloom of discouragement and 
betoken the dawning of better days. Humanity 
needs help. It is bruised, bleeding, and crushed. 
It has fallen among thieves. It has been robbed, 
stripped, and left for dead. There is a call for 
Good Samaritans everywhere to bind up the 
wounded and pour in the oil of sympathy, to 
spend and be spent, to strengthen the feeble 
knees and uphold the hands that are hanging 
down, to weep with those that weep. Practical 
philanthropy is the call of the age for men and 
women who are willing to be angels to minister 
to others, servants of all in the lowly places, to 
find the sad and sorrowing ones, and bring light 
and comfort into their lives and homes. 

There is a legend that St. John, the beloved 
disciple, pursued one who had been in the fellow- 
ship of Christ and one of his disciples, but who 
had strayed away, and found him out in his haunt 
as a robber, and brought him back again to 
purity and renewed fellowship in the Church and 
the love of Christ. And this is the high commis- 
sion of the twentieth-century Church, not to be 
encased in marble barriers, and within dim- 
lighted cathedrals bow in prayer and meditation, 



In Groups 71 

but to seek the sinful and wandering out in life's 
byways and hedges, going out to find and save 
them, and compel them to come in. "How reach 
the masses" that are at our very doors, that 
crowd our streets, that frequent the scenes of 
revelry, that go into the dens of infamy and 
shame, that are our brothers, all of them, re- 
deemed by Christ's blood? Glorious labor to 
seek to win them back! Precious their bruised 
and bleeding hearts in the sight of Christ's love. 
Blessed the reward for every service in their be- 
half. Much of the joy of heaven is over the wan- 
derer's return. May we have not only one star 
in our crowd of rejoicing, but may they be "in 
groups !" 



Chapter V 
DOWN BY THE OLD HOME 



Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." 

"And Home! The heart's sweet resting-place, 
What spot on earth so dear, 
When sweet content, with smiling face, 
Makes all things bright appear?" 



'T^HE place of a man's birth has much to do 
-*■ with his after life. The atmosphere of the 
home-life he breathes has much to do with his 
moral fiber and intellectual attainment. It may 
be in the country amid its solitudes, or in the 
bustling city with its jar and tumult. It may be 
in America, to enjoy its free air and religious and 
civil liberty; or in autocratic Russia, to feel its 
restraints. Washington was born on a planta- 
tion, surrounded by aristocratic associations; 
Lincoln and Grant in lowly homes. The birth- 
place of Shakespeare was Stratford-upon-Avon, a 
picturesque English village. There is an advan- 
tage in being well born, to have in your veins 
the blood of godly ancestors. The child who 
first sees the light in a crowded tenement-house 
infested with crime, and whose earliest recollec- 
tions of life are scenes of brutality, poverty, and 
licentiousness, is handicapped on life's journey. 
The sins of the fathers are visited on the children. 
Under the laws of heredity, the inherent tenden- 

75 



y6 Character Photography 

cies are towards evil, and these, developed by un- 
healthy environments, produce youthful crimi- 
nals. What an inestimable blessing is heredi- 
tary purity! The young disciple of Paul, Tim- 
othy, owed so much to the religious life of his 
mother and grandmother, and the Biblical in- 
struction of his childhood home. The homes of 
America are centers of power. From them go 
out the influence, the leaven that shall leaven 
the lump of social life and purify the fountains 
of national politics. As long as they are kept 
inviolable, national life is secure. The training 
of early childhood has very much to do with a 
subsequent career of usefulness. A real home at- 
mosphere, a mother's gentle influence, the quiet 
delights of childhood, the simple home joys, 
make character, and set the youth on the high 
plane to success. "The home forecasts the life, 
as morning forecasts the day." Youth has vast 
potentialities of happiness. It is the formative 
period, the most impressionable time of life, the 
most inconstant. Then tendencies are developed. 
In the home-life foundations are laid. They are 
very essential, and they ought to be dug deep 
and wide, and made firm and strong. There is a 



Down by the Old Home 77 

creative power about the associations of the old 
home. In the homes of America are born the 
children of America, and from them they go out 
into American life with the stamp of the home 
upon them. Here we see the strength of intelli- 
gent and well-ordered homes. Home-life is the 
source of exquisite blessing. There is nothing 
more attractive, refining, and uplifting than its 
simple joys and fireside pleasures. The world 
has pleasures gay and bright; but nothing ex- 
ceeds the joys of home, the bliss of our own fire- 
side. It is a place of gladness when burns the 
firelight bright. We cross its doorsill, and enter 
its threshold to find the garden of Paradise. We 
can not be indifferent to the sweet attractions, 
simple pleasures, pleasant conversation, and 
sweet songs of its happy circle. None are more 
bright, more pure, and none more like the love 
of highest heaven. It is more like heaven than 
any spot on earth. Some one has said, "It is a 
special creation of Christianity." There is no 
other spot on earth so dear. How men long for its 
quiet and repose! "I long to see home," feels 
the sailor lad, as he climbs the mast amid the 
storm on the ocean wave. "I am going home," 



78 Character Photography 

says the business man, as he bars the doors and 
shuts the blinds after a day of vexatious cares. 
"Home!" shouts the schoolboy when the day's 
studies are over. "I must hurry home," feels the 
fond mother as she passes along the crowded 
street, thinking of the little ones who need her 
watchful care. 

" 'T is sweet to hear the watch-dog's honest bark, 

Bay deep-mouthed welcome as we draw near home; 
'T is sweet to know there is an eye will mark 
Our coming, and look brighter when we come." 

Halcyon days of childhood, whether spent in 
a royal nursery or rough cradle, under an arch- 
ing canopy and stately architecture or low, 
thatched roof and lowly hearthstone ! 

"Of all the knots that Nature ties" 

it is the last to break. The home that gave us 
birth ! The scene of our first joys and sorrows ! 
What a charm ! What associations it suggests ! 
What sacred memories it recalls! The garden 
gate, the overhanging tree, the woodbine porch, 
the winding brook, the busy bee, — these cher- 
ished recollections make the old home the holiest 






Down by the Old Home 79 

of places. Fond memory clings to it as ivy clings 
to ruined places. 

"Ah! happy years! once more who would not be a boy?" 

In hours of sadness, when grief presses and 
the burdens of life are heavy, then we long, like 
David, to go back, and, 

"Kneeling, drink 
At the spring our boyhood knew, 
Pure and clear as morning dew." 

In imagination we take 

"The side path home, the back way past 
The old pump and the dipper there; 
The afternoon of dreamy June, 
The old porch and the rocking-chair." 

There are memorial stones set up on the 
threshold of the old homestead. 

"Time writeth memories 
And painteth pictures there." 

We recall the last scene at the gateway, when, 
with tears in the eyes, the hands were clasped 
in a farewell shake, the parting word was spoken 
and the "good-bye" said, and, with faces toward 



80 Character Photography 

the future, we left the old home for another one. 
Home! A magic word. When we speak it, it 
seems to be like a bewitching strain from the 
harp of memory. 

Spurgeon said, "Home is the grandest of all 
institutions." It is the keystone of the arch. 
No other place in all the world holds more sacred 
and helpful associations. The earliest influences 
for molding opinions and forming habits can not 
be overestimated or superseded. In it is the real 
test of character. A bully at home will make a 
tyrant among men. A boy who is rude to his 
sister will by and by be discourteous to some one 
else's sister. The son who is a tyrant to mother 
will after a while lord it over the fair one who 
becomes his wife. Home is the place for the 
smaller courtesies of life. How much they mean ! 
A kind father, a loving husband, a dutiful son, 
a courteous brother; not obsequious, not churl- 
ish, not effeminate, but thoughtful, manly, and 
polite. Our highest effort ought to be to please 
and gladden the family circle. Those nearest to 
us have stronger claims upon us than any other. 
To be considerate and gracious of speech 
towards those of our household is life's purest 



Down by the Old Home 81 

joy and highest service. Rudeness and incivility 
ought to have no place in the home. Home-life 
ought not to be a drudgery. There is toil and 
care, the daily routine and daily wear, but withal 
there should be a sweet content, quiet trust, and 
buoyant hope. 

"Make home a hive where all beautiful feelings 
Cluster like bees and their honey-dew bring; 
Make it a temple of holy revealings, 
And love its bright angels with shadowy wing. 

Then will it be, when afar on life's billows, 

Wherever your tempest-tossed children are flung, 
They will long for the shade of the home weeping- 
willows, 
And sing the sweet songs which their mother had 
sung." 

Home is the place for sacred confidences. 
Webster defines home as a "dwelling-house," 
but it ought to be, and usually is, more. It is a 
place for filial and trustful confidence. This ex- 
presses its highest note. Not silly nothings, 
sentimental and honeyed phrases, but the confi- 
dence of high thought and clean living. It must 
not conceal its thoughts or hide its movements. 
If the fire goes out on its altar of love, then the 



82 Character Photography 

home is desolate. All else is shoddy gewgaw, 
fading tinselry, and hollow mockery. 

"Pluck one thread, and the web ye mar; 
Break but one of a thousand keys, and the parting jar 
Through all will run." 

It must be kept pure. It is a blessing if the 
cords of love bind all in joy and peace; but let 
the hateful, venomous viper of lust enter, and it 
despoils its treasures and robs the peace. Lust 
is cruel, reckless, indifferent. It tramples on the 
hearts of others. Take care that it does not spoil 
the purity and fragrance of your home-life. 
There are dangers to the home. It is menaced 
on every hand. Our activities are destroying its 
quiet. Our social customs are menacing its hap- 
piness. Our conventionalities are marring its 
beauty. The saloon, the gambling den, and the 
brothel, with their social vices, are sapping the 
virtue of the home. May we smite them before 
they blast us ! 

The religious influences of the home are 
potent. Its religious life ought to be pure, cheer- 
ful, full of sweet content, its piety unassuming, 
and goodness real. Then its joy will chasten 
every sorrow. The Bible has a place in the fam- 



Down by the Old Home 83 

ily as a household treasure. There, with no 
doubts or cavils or questionings about it, it is 
read by the quiet firelight as the gloom of even- 
ing time comes on. Who can forget the sacred 
associations of those hours? The morning in- 
cense and evening oblation of ascending prayers, 
the gathering in the old parlor on Sabbath after- 
noons, the deep-toned organ-notes, the sacred 
songs and sweetly solemn tunes. There is the 
child kneeling at mother's knee in snowy white 
night-robes not purer than the little heart, and 
the sweet voice is lifted softly, tenderly, in words 
of prayer, reverently saying : 

"Now I lay me down to sleep, 
I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep; 
If I should die before I wake, 
I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take." 

Or, when older grown and the vofce better 
modulated, but not sweeter, and the vision 
broadened, the wisdom clearer, joining all the 
family circle in repeating, "Our Father, who art 
in heaven." 

How well we remember the last gathering 
for prayer about the old hearthstone, the tremu- 
lous words of adoration and petition, the singing 



84 Character Photography 

of "God be with you till we meet again." Then, 
with silent hand-clasp the Mizpah ends, and we 
go out to tread life's busy pathways with its 
sweet melody ringing in our ears, and the relig- 
ious spirit of the home lingers yet. 

Religion in the home! There Christ writes 
his image on many a child heart, never to be 
effaced, but to be brightened and enlarged all 
along life's journey. The home at Nazareth! 
Who has not wanted to lift its curtain and peer 
into its secrets, to know more of those days of 
childhood spent in such obscurity? Humble it 
must have been, for they were poor. Holy it 
must also have been, for they were pious. Obedi- 
ence must have been its law, for He was subject 
to his parents. Seclusive it could not have been, 
for they had friends in Cana, and he afterwards 
mingled freely with the people, and ate with 
publicans and sinners. Mary's and Martha's 
home must have been like it, for he loved to go 
there. And then later on he had no home, "not 
where to lay his head." He spent the night in 
solitude on the mountain's brow, or slept on a 
pillow in a boat during a raging storm. 

How we pity a man who has no home; who 



Down by the Old Home 85 

has no tie of family; in whose heart are sad traces 
of neglect in youth; whose retrospect of home 
is a dreary blank! How much he needs the 
friendship of Christ, and homes that are full of 
joy ought to be opened to him. The genesis of 
a home! Who can describe it! Here is a 
maiden fair and graceful, and a man noble and 
brave. She is coy and winsome, he is stalwart 
and strong. Together they plight their love, 
and there is a betrothal. Love's golden clasp 
binds it, and love's canopy hangs above it. Then 
come the marriage altar, the bridal wreath, the 
wedding-bells, and then home. There is a doub- 
ling of every joy, and the halving of every sor- 
row. She brings the dower of her good sense 
and serenity of temper, and he his undaunted 
courage and indomitable will, and together they 
share many a cup of joy and drink many a cup 
of sorrow. 

The world looks to womanhood for its moral 
and spiritual advancement. In the home we find 
its highest type as wife and mother. Here she 
manifests her sublime faith and womanly cour- 
age. Here she shows the supremacy of disinter- 
ested love and service. The good Queen Vic- 



86 Character Photography 

toria was great as a ruler, but greater as a 
woman. In this sphere her high qualities en- 
deared her to the world. She brought great 
honor to womankind. She did much for the 
home-life by the incentive of her example and 
the homely but necessary virtues of pure woman- 
liness. In her the home-life of England, with its 
wifely sanctities, its pure domestic duties, and 
its plain loves, were focalized. She did not per- 
mit her sovereignty to overwhelm her woman- 
hood. She inculcated habits of domestic indus- 
try and honest charity so characteristic of the 
family life of England, and the lesson she taught 
will not soon pass away. She was the exponent 
of the highest ideas of domestic life. To her 
children she gave the tender solicitude of a true 
mother. Noble queen! Beautiful wife and 
mother ! 

Mother! Ah, how much that means! "An 
ounce of mother is worth a pound of priest," 
Napoleon said. "Let France have good mothers, 
and she will have good sons." 

"A mother is a mother still, 
The holiest thing alive." 



Down by the Old Home 87 

The great Lincoln said, "All I am, and all I 
hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." Gar- 
field and McKinley were never greater than in 
their love and devotion to their mothers. A little 
boy said, "The prettiest thing I ever saw was my 
mother's face." And another said, "I do n't care 
if it is wrinkled, it is beautiful anyway." Mother's 
love ! How steady, enduring, and pure it is, like 
a flame divine. Mother's commands are gentle, 
mingled with reproof. Mother's words are full 
of encouragement and cheer. Mother's sym- 
pathy is manifest in every sorrow and trouble. 

Mother, thou wast the guiding spirit of our 
home; 

"To thee my gift I 'd bring, 
As to his nest at eve a bird will come, 
His sweetest song to sing." 

One day life's sky was checkered with clouds, 
and our hearts shrouded with gloom. There was 
a hushed and darkened chamber. We kissed the 
sweet face, but it was unresponsive clay. The 
eyes were closed and the hands folded under the 
coffin-lid, and we laid her away beneath the 
winter sod. 



88 Character Photography 

And grandmother, dear old grandma, with 
her silver hair and floods of sunshine. What stir- 
ring events in her life ! What stories she can tell ! 
Now she sits aside in her old arm-chair. The 
Bible is open on the table before her. Her spec- 
tacles are thrown back, and she is fast asleep, 
dreaming of childhood. Blessed old face, with 
its radiance of heaven; one of God's saints linger- 
ing here on earth to shame its wickedness and 
unbelief. One day an angel whispered, "Come 
away/' and she was not, for God took her. 

And the baby, little household treasure, with 
sweet, smiling face, tiny feet, loving ways, and 
clinging arms; and the others older grown, 
romping and roving, 

"Patterin', patterin', up and down." 

Childish voices with constant prattle, won- 
dering, questioning eyes, sparkling with delight. 
Children with little heartaches and petty squab- 
bles, growing up and going out, one by one, to 
school, to college, into business and trade, into 
other homes, and it may be into the country be- 
yond, and into the eternal home. 



Down by the Old Home 89 

And now the old home is broken. There are 
empty places. The hearthstone is desolate. 
Father and mother are gone to the better land, 
the children are separated, some are far away. 
Strangers go in and out of the old place, and the 
home of childhood is only a memory now. 



Chapter VI 



NATURE STUDIES 



'Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in everything." 

"So shall I talk of thy wondrous works." 



HP HE connection between man and the ma- 
•*- terial universe has been fully demonstrated. 
Isolate him from surrounding objects, and he is 
powerless; his mind, heart, and soul deteriorate. 
Bring him in contact with inanimate nature, and 
he is quickened into new life; the intellect is 
sharpened, the heart is invigorated, and the soul 
inspired; genius is awakened and wields her 
scepter of power, curiosity is aroused into en- 
thusiasm, and acuteness of penetration awakens 
thought. The natural tendency of things around 
us is to promote the association of ideas, from 
which flow thoughts and sentiments calculated 
to touch and elevate both mind and soul. There 
is something peculiarly instructive in the manner 
and method by which the things around us are 
adapted to our intellectual wants. Through all 
the grades of pupilage, all the degrees of civil- 
ization, and all the heights of mental exaltation, 
we can trace the effect to the same cause. The 

93 



94 Character Photography 

world is a great Athenaeum, where all may come 
and have revealed the arcana of knowledge. Na- 
ture is a glorious sanctuary, where the Shekinah 
meets his people, touches their souls, and purifies 
their hearts, by its holy ministries. Nature's in- 
spiration is the torch of mind. Its magic touch 
gives acuteness to the understanding, and sharp- 
ens it for active life. The beauty of its lessons is 
graven in shining and ineffaceable characters 
upon the soul. The boy engraves his name on 
the flinty rock, or carves it on the growing tree, 
and he comes back in after years to see that the 
crude letters have remained; while they in turn 
have written their impressions upon his soul, 
which are not effaced by the vicissitudes of time. 
To its votaries Nature opens a wide horizon. It 
is the stepping-stone from the known to the un- 
known. The goddess of knowledge sits in its 
antechambers and instructs her followers. We 
can not long gaze at its variegated scenes with- 
out realizing its beauty and catching inspiration 
from the regularity of its laws. 

"The moss we crush beneath our feet, 
The pebbles on the wet seabeach, 
Have meanings strange and sweet." 



Nature Studies 95 

The pictures God paints in the sky every day 
are free for all. We see beauty amid the number- 
less flowers of spring, in the waving branches of 
the trees, in the hues of the seashell, and in the 
gleam of the precious stone. It is reflected from 
the silver-lined cloud, and by the rising and set- 
ting sun. All nature is a psalm, a melody of 
praise, and an anthem of joy. There is music 
in the rippling waves of the deep-toned sea, in 
the wonderful rhapsodies of mountain echoes, 
and in the sparkling water dashing down the 
rocky gorge and over the cataract. All nature 
speaks his praise, the waving harvest, the rolling 
landscape, the rippling fountain, the smiling 
flowers, the tiny blade of grass. The everchang- 
ing kaleidoscope of nature fills the mind with 
thoughts of boundless power and inaccessible 
majesty. We can not look upon the boundless 
prairie, the variegated forest, and the shoreless 
ocean, without sublime thoughts of the Wisdom 
and Benevolence which hath made all in har- 
monious adaptation to our wants. When the ear 
is attuned to hear the voiceless messages of na- 
ture, it will hear the voices of humanity and of 
nature's God. 



96 Character Photography 

"For I have learned 

To look on nature, not as in the hour 

Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes, 

The still sad music of humanity; 

Not harsh nor grating, though of ample power 

To chasten and subdue. And I have felt 

A spirit which disturbed me with the joy 

Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime 

Of something far more deeply interfused, 

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 

And the round ocean, and the living air, 

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man: — 

A motion and a spirit that impels 

All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 

And rolls through all things." 

— Wordsworth. 

Look at nature under the spell of the wizard 
Science, when he peers into its mysteries, when 
he questions its past, and when he waves his 
wand and reveals its inexhaustible stores. It has 
marvelous phenomena. See its crystallized dew- 
drops, like a cluster of diamonds, gently distilled 
upon the soil. Watch the tender grass springing 
after the gentle shower. Look at the frost-king 
as he smites like a plague, or the hot sirocco that 
withers all it touches. Study the cold that con- 
geals the water into ice, and the heat that gener- 
ates the steam. What revelations in the chem- 
ical elements of earth, air, and water! What 



Nature Studies 97 

marvels when the microscope reveals the invis- 
ible atoms and molecules, or the telescope ex- 
pands the heavens into a mighty planetary sys- 
tem! What wonderful manifestations of life, 
pulsating everywhere, blooming in the flowers, 
singing in the forest, and skimming the seas! 
Ours is an age peculiarly instructive. Forces 
and laws whose adaptation was unknown in the 
past have, in this age of invention and discovery, 
been brought into practical application. The 
flash of the lightning, the fall of the apple, the 
escaping steam, suggested the thought of hidden 
power. A philosophic Franklin snatched the 
thunderbolt from the heavens, and chained it by 
his power. A thoughtful Newton saw in the 
apple's fall a mighty force, attracting universe to 
universe. An inventive Watt brought forth the 
hidden force of steam, and made it the motive 
power of progress. Niagara, that had poured its 
ceaseless flood for untold ages, has been har- 
nessed and utilized, and made man's agent to 
turn his spindles and run the machinery of our 
modern civilization. 

What beautiful lessons are taught us by the 
flowers! There are fields of wild flowers, fra- 
7 



98 Character Photography 

grant and sweet, growing everywhere in great 
profusion, and of all tints and colors. It is said 
there are sixteen hundred flowering plants in 
England alone. Tennyson wrote : 

"Flower in the crannied wall, 
I pluck you out of the crannies, 
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
Little flower; but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
I should know what God and man is." 

President McKinley always wore a pink car- 
nation in his button-hole. His carnations grew 
in the White House conservatory, and were Mrs. 
McKinley's chiefest pride. One was always laid 
by his dress suit for dinner, and one by his frock 
coat in the morning. When he was traveling his 
secretary attended to it. It was the President's 
custom in traveling always to give this button- 
hole carnation to the engineer of the locomotive 
behind which he traveled. When he alighted 
from his private coach at the station, he walked 
up the platform until he reached the huge ma- 
chine. From the cab-window leaned the engi- 
neer, his sooty face beaming, hesitant, expectant. 
The President stopped just an instant, that the 
action might not attract the slightest attention. 



Nature Studies 99 

and handed the pink flower into the grimy hands 
with a very low, "I sincerely thank you for your 
skill and my safety/' 

Flowers are always conducive of the worship- 
ful spirit. Mrs. Hemans beautifully expresses 
this feeling : 

"Bring flowers to the shrine where we kneel in prayer; 
They are Nature's offering, their place is there! 
They speak of hope to the fainting heart, 
With a voice of promise they come and part; 
They sleep in dust in the wintry hours, 
They break forth in glory, — bring flowers, bright 
flowers." 

Who is not attracted by the charm of the 

beautiful, pure, and white lily? Many of the 

worn-out farms of Virginia have of late been 

turned to good account by their owners, who 

have directed their attention to violet-growing. 

The industry is spreading rapidly, and is said to 

bring substantial returns. 

"Sweet violets, sweeter than all the roses, — 
Sweet violets, I pluck them and bring them to thee." 

A pretty legend ascribes to an angel's gift 
the extra beauty possessed by the moss-rose, 
veiled with its mantle of green. The angel, 
grateful for the protection of a rosebush, asked 

L.cfO. 



ioo Character Photography 

the rose what gift it desired in return. The rose 
desired the angel to bestow another grace upon 
it, and the flower in a moment was covered with 
moss. Of the flower's lineage an old legend says, 
"I came from nectar spilled from heaven;" and 
in the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus sor- 
rowed alone, the rose bloomed, as it still does, 
in fragrance and beauty. 

By the artistic hand of man and by cultiva- 
tion, beautiful gardens of splendid foliage and 
blooming flowers make a paradise of verdure 
where nature is always at her best; make a na- 
ture's "holy of holies, ,, where her inner glories 
of divine beauty shine forth, and from which may 
be carried away mental visions and life inspira- 
tions. 

"Nature at sunset! Who may not 
Enjoy the calmness of the evening hour?" 

"Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, 
And all the air a solemn stillness holds." 

The heavens are glowing with an indescrib- 
able effulgence. Scott describes such a scene : 

"The western waves of ebbing day 
Rolled o'er the glen their level ray; 
Each purple peak, each flinty spire, 
Was bathed in floods of living fire." 



Nature Studies 101 

Nature at night ! As the curtain of darkness 
drops her mantle down! Look at the azure 
depths in the calm watches of the night. Be- 
hold the star-spangled heavens ! With the child 
we say: 

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, 
How I wonder what you are, 
Up above the world so high, 
Like a diamond in the sky." 

Then, with the astronomers, we measure 
their distances and count their numbers. We 
trace them in cluster; Orion and Pleiades; or 
view them as planets, Jupiter and Venus, — 

"Forever singing as they shine, 
The hand that made us is divine." 

Nature at sunrise! In the eastern sky the 
curtain of night, with its mists and darknes° 
gloom and fear, rolls away, and gives place to 
the glories of the coming day, which flashes 
across the firmament in quivering lances of 
changing shades of vivid coloring, until it 
wakens the world into new life. Daylight comes, 
and night is gone. The finer sensibilities of our 
natures are attuned to such visions, until they 



102 Character Photography 

seem like the harmony of some magic harp mak- 
ing melody for our soul. 

Yonder flows a majestic river. Its birthplace 
was up yonder mountain-side, under the mossy 
rock, a little, trickling stream. Rushing out, it 
becomes a wayside brook among the crannies; 
then a rivulet, meandering among the flowers; 
and now a deep-voiced river, rolling on toward 
the ocean and its azure depths. The Atheist 
walks in nature as though it were a great wilder- 
ness. He stumbles and staggers amid intermi- 
nable voids; he knocks against rocks, with no 
light for his path, and with no hope in his heart. 
The Pantheist views it as a great temple of strange 
carvings; but there is no architect, no builder, 
no owner, and no occupant. But the Christian 
goes through it as a great garden, tilled and tur- 
reted, or as a great house where God and his 
children dwell. Nature has its dark and terrible 
aspects. Cyclones devastate, and tornadoes de- 
stroy. Volcanoes smoke and flame; earthquakes 
shock and rend; flood, fire, pestilence, and fam- 
ine stalk abroad, and death reigns supreme. The 
very rocks are full of relentless forces, the har- 
bingers of gigantic ruin. But over all the sod 



Nature Studies 103 

spreads its mantle and the fields smile in beauty; 
and thus even its sterner phases are beautified. 
But perhaps it teaches most by its solitudes. 
Go into her depths and commune alone with her, 
in the caves and caverns and mountain fastnesses, 
where her voice is sweetest and clearest. Walk 
along her byways, pluck wild flowers by the way- 
side; see the autumnal leaf, with its fantastic 
beauty and marvelous tints. Follow the brook, 
winding through sequestered nooks, into cool 
retreats, and drink its pure, sparkling water. 
Wander along hedges and green lanes, with a 
keen relish for beauty; among glades and glens, 
and on into the groves and stately forest. Stand 
under the leafy canopy of oak or chestnut or 
maple : 

" The groves were God's first temples." 

Go back in thought and imagination to the 
beginning, when all was chaos, void, and dark- 
ness. Then hear the Divine fiat which brings 
the first streaking of light; see the receding 
waters, order appear out of confusion, the moun- 
tains and hills uplift, and life appear, vegetable, 
animal, and then last of all man, the lord of ere- 



104 Character Photography 

ation. This is his world. Why should he not 
enjoy its beauties? 

" To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell, 
To slowly trace the forest's shady scene, 
Where things that own not man's dominion dwell, 
And human foot hath ne'er, or rarely, been, . . . 
This is not solitude ; 't is but to hold 
Converse with Nature's God, and see her stores un- 
rolled." 

God's heroes have been trained amid her soli- 
tudes. Moses saw the "burning bush" and heard 
the call to duty at Horeb. The children of Israel 
received the law and commandments in the wil- 
derness. Elijah, the Tishbite, was fed by the 
ravens at the diminishing brook's side. John the 
Baptist was trained for his great work in the 
desert. The world's greatest workers have been 
reared in the quiet places. How much of Christ's 
life was spent in communion with nature! He 
was carried as a babe over the drifting sands on 
the hasty flight into Egypt. He climbed the 
mountain road to Nazareth, his boyhood home. 
He was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness 
to be tempted, and prepared for his life work. 
Days were spent along the shores of the Sea of 
Galilee, in a boat, under the blue sky, or in the 



Nature Studies 105 

tempest on the storm-tossed waves. At night 
he was on the mountain-side in prayer, out under 
the stars alone with immensity. In the garden's 
cool retreat and lonely quiet he endured the 
great agony of soul that prepared him for the 
tragedy of the cross. Master, let me follow thy 
example, and get close to the heart of nature. 



Chapter VII 
BATTLE SCENES 



Not in the clamor of the crowded street, 
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, 
But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat." 

"Life's race well run, 
Life's work well done, 
Life's crown well won, 
Now comes rest." 

—President Garfield's Epitaph. 



T^ARTH is a great battlefield. We see 
-■— ' everywhere evidences of gigantic strug- 
gles. Strife and conflict have marked the world's 
progress. On historic fields there are signs of 
the bivouac and campfire and evidences of the 
storm of battle. There men by heroic deeds have 
built monuments that are imperishable. There 
brave spirits, noble worthies, wrought out vic- 
tories that are enshrined in the archives of the 
past. To read of their struggles, to tell of their 
deeds, and to count their victories, is to stir the 
heart with holy emotions. We catch the infec- 
tion of their spirit and the enthusiasm of their 
incalculable devotion. The world is always 
stirred by the recital of these scenes. Poetry has 
evoked the Muse to chant their praise. Statuary 
has emblazoned their fame. Sculptor's chisel 
has made these deeds breathe, and artist's pen- 
cils have made them glow, and they stand out as 
living facts. Oratory has pronounced their en- 
comium, and history has recorded their valor. 
109 



no Character Photography 

War! How it has devastated the world! 
How we shudder when we think of it! O, the 
tragedy and the pathos of war ! Not the camp- 
life and campfire, not the quiet scene of the 
evening hour, with the soldier boys chatting, 
writing letters, and singing songs, but when the 
morning breaks and the summons comes, "To 
arms," and he goes forth to the awful carnage 
and din of battle, to be wounded or killed, or 
taken prisoner. Such is war; a grim reality. 
War ! How the shock of its mighty battles and 
gigantic struggles has shaken the earth; battles 
like Waterloo and Gettysburg ! What marches, 
like Napoleon's over the Alps, or Sherman's to 
the sea ! What sieges, like Paris or Vicksburg ! 
What prison horrors, like the Tower of London 
or Andersonville ! What great generals, like the 
Duke of Wellington or Grant! Its tattered 
battle-flags teach us lessons of patriotism and 
valor, and stimulate us to noble deeds. Amid its 
awful carnage 

"The citizen has been evolved 
From the serf, and the freeman from the slave." 

There is a beautiful picture called "The 
Salute to the Wounded." It represents a group 



Battle Scenes in 

of officers standing with bowed heads while a 
line of wounded soldiers go by. 

"And O, if there be, on this earthly sphere, 
A boon, an offering Heaven holds dear, 
'T is the last libation Liberty draws 
From the heart that bleeds and breaks in her cause." 

Yet we would not only paint the pictures of 
the battles of conquest, but also those for prin- 
ciple, the struggles for liberty of conscience. 
Who are the best characters in history? Not 
tyrants, who have made cringing slaves of their 
subjects, nor conquerors who have reveled in 
carnage and blood. No ! no ! Rather those who 
have conquered self, and those who have died 
for principle, — Moses, who left a crown and 
worldly fame for duty and right; Elijah, who 
defied Ahab who was wrong; John the Baptist, 
a forerunner of better things ; Luther, who cared 
not for papal power; Bunyan, bound in jail, — 
brave, courageous, fearless, immortal souls, with 
iron nerve and no padlock on their lips ! — 

"Souls on fire, and waiting but their time 
To burst with iEtna grandeur on the world!" — 

men to whom truth was as a fire in their bones; 
like those who cried, "The sword of the Lord 



U2 Character Photography 

and of Gideon;" like Old Ironsides, who went 
into battle singing "Old Hundred;" like Gus- 
tavus Adolphus, who flung his life, his army, and 
his kingdom into the contest which he waged 
with Germany for the maintenance of the re- 
formed religion ; like Washington, who rose from 
his knees at Valley Forge to draw the sword. 
The path of duty is no primrose way. There is 
no road to glory but through death. The men 
who have made the world better have not fared 
sumptuously and been clothed in purple. They 
have often been mocked, and sometimes mobbed. 
Sometimes they had to stand as lone sentinels, 
and sometimes they had to face an ambush. 
Galileo was put on the rack; Luther had to go 
to Worms; Wesley was shut out of the churches; 
Christ was crucified on Calvary. What a record 
of heroic struggles ! All history is resonant with 
their echoes. What wonderful characters have 
been developed by them ! If we were to call the 
roll of the world's uncrowned kings, what a long 
line of illustrious names! Let us name a few 
without historical or chronological order: John 
Howard, who heard 

"The sorrowful sighing of the prisoners," 



Battle Scenes 113 

who, with a spirit of humanity and zeal went 
into the English jails, amid the lazarettos of 
Venice and Marseilles, to plague-smitten Smyrna 
and Constantinople, and found a grave at Cher- 
son; John Howard, humanitarian! Socrates, 
who found that thirty tyrants had established a 
frightful despotism in Athens, and proscribed 
every eminent citizen — he alone refused to obey, 
and drank calmly and serenely the fatal hem- 
lock; Socrates, philosopher! Joan of Arc, a fair 
maiden living in the rural part of France, — a 
voice haunted her in the quietude of her home, 
and she never rested until she doffed her peasant 
garb, and, putting on the soldier's armor, yet 
maintaining the purity and gentleness of a village 
maiden, she rode at the head of the French army, 
turned the tide of battle, infused her own faith 
and courage into men's fainting hearts, and won 
deathless fame; Joan of Arc, maiden heroine! 
Savonarola, who represented a pure Christianity 
amid the corruption of the Italian Renaissance, 
whose energy and perfect fearlessness made him 
unsparing in his exposure of reigning vices, 
whose eloquence and fervency made all classes 
ready to hear him, and who demanded freedom 



U4 Character Photography 

for Florence of a dying potentate before he could 
receive absolution; Savonarola, patriot priest! 
Harvey, an original investigator and thinker, 
who lost his practice of medicine when he an- 
nounced the true theory of the circulation of the 
blood, but lived to see it generally accepted, and 
his own college has erected a statue to his mem- 
ory; Harvey, scientist! Galileo, who moved the 
world by his thought, as well as discovered the 
physical movement of the earth, who was con- 
victed of heresy in the Eternal City, and suffered 
martyrdom, but whom after ages vindicated and 
crowned; Galileo, astronomer! Wilberforce, 
who exemplified the truth uttered by the poet, — 

"Truest freedom is to share 
All the chains our brothers wear, 
And with heart and hand to be, 
Earnest to make others free. 
They are slaves who fear to speak 
For the fallen and the weak; 
They are slaves who will not choose 
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse, 
Rather than in silence shrink, 
From the truth they needs must think. 
Men! whose boast it is that ye 
Come of Fathers brave and free, 
If there lives a man whom ye 
By your labor can make free, 
Then ye are not free and brave 
While there breathes on earth a slave." 



Battle Scenes 115 

Wilberforce, philanthropist! From every coun- 
try, clime, and age they have come; every soil 
has been stained with their blood. Germany 
bears the honor of giving to the religious world 
the Reformation. America was the haven to 
which came the Pilgrim Fathers. Scotland, bon- 
nie Scotland, with its rugged heaths and glades, 
its lakes and glens, its beautiful scenery, with its 
pure air, developed the sturdy Covenanters, 

"That dauntless race, 
Who would rather die unsullied 
Than outlive the land's disgrace." 

France gave the Huguenots a sobriquet, 
given as a reproach, yet representing imperish- 
able qualities. They had close communion with 
God, 

"And thought 
What others only dreamed about, and did 
What others did but think, and gloried in 
What others dared but do." 

But God's horizon of heroism has not only 
its fixed stars and planets, that blaze on in match- 
less splendor, but lesser lights also, that, while 
not so conspicuous now, will come out in greater 
glory in the ages to come, — men and women 
who in humble spheres have fought battles and 



u6 Character Photography 

won victories, who have performed deeds of valor 
unrecorded by the historian's pen, but seen by 
the eye of God. In the struggle for German lib- 
erty one of the most touching acts of devotion 
to the cause was that of a girl eighteen years old, 
a daughter of noble parents. She was famed for 
her beauty, and most of all for her mass of golden 
hair. She had nothing else to give, so she went 
to a barber and asked him what her hair was 
worth. He answered ten thalers. She asked 
him to cut it off, but he refused. She went home 
and cut her hair off herself, and, wrapping it up, 
she sent it to the king's officer, with this note, 
"The barber has offered ten thalers for my hair. 
I am happy to be able to make this small gift to 
my country." 

Another story comes from recent times. 
General Elliott, Governor of Gibraltar, while 
making a tour of inspection during a siege of 
that fortress, came upon a German soldier stand- 
ing silent and still at his post; the man neither 
held his musket nor presented arms as the gen- 
eral approached. Struck with the neglect, the 
general asked: "Sentinel, don't you know me? 
Why do you neglect your duty?" "I know you 



Battle Scenes 117 

well," answered the soldier; "but I can not hold 
my musket, as I had the fingers of my right 
hand shot off a few minutes ago." "Why, then," 
said the general, "have you not gone to have 
them bound up?" "Because my duty is to stand 
here until relieved," answered the man. "Go at 
once, I will relieve you," said the general. The 
soldier, faithful to the idea of duty, went first to 
the guardhouse to report that the general stood 
at his post, and then went to the surgeon to have 
his wounds dressed. 

The writer was a witness of the act that is 
described in the scene that follows : In the park 
of a Western city, through the efforts of the 
ladies of the Park Association, assisted by the 
public, has been placed a fountain to commemo- 
rate the memory of John Braden, who gave up 
his life by an act of heroism. It was during a 
carnival parade. He was driving the wagon 
loaded with ammunition and fireworks. As the 
procession proceeded, in some way or other a 
spark connected with the contents of his wagon 
and ignited them. It was soon a mass of flame. 
His horses became frightened and attempted to 
run away. The streets were crowded with peo- 



n8 Character Photography 

pie. He remained at his post, and prevented 
any other accident until he finally fell from his 
seat to the ground exhausted and unconscious. 
He was terribly burned, and died the next after- 
noon. He was buried in great honor by the city. 
Soon afterward a movement was started to raise 
a monument fund. To this many contributed, 
especially the school-children. At the time he 
was a comparative stranger, having led a quiet, 
unostentatious life. But he died a hero, and his 
act made his name a household word. The foun- 
tain is a beautiful and artistic piece of work. The 
upper part is the figure of a woman with a water- 
jar upon her shoulders. The lower part consists 
of dragons, through whose mouths the water 
flows into the basin beneath. On one side is 
the inscription: "In memory of John Braden, 
who sacrificed his life, October 16, 1896, to save 
the lives of others." This fountain teaches us 
that, no matter how obscure our place, duty done 
will be honored, and that sacrifice is better than 
gold, and will be remembered. All honor to this 
hero. 

Thus in the humbler spheres and amid life's 
common duties, men are being true to trusts, 



Battle Scenes 119 

standing for convictions, and doing noble acts. 
To them we ma v well apply the words of 
Whittier : 

"If he hath hidden the outcast, or let in 
A ray of sunshine to the cell of sin; 

If he hath lent 
Strength to the weak, and, in the hour of need, 
Over the suffering, mindless of his creed 

Or home, hath bent, — 

He has not lived in vain, and while he gives 
The praises to Him in whom he moves and lives, 

With thankful heart, 
He gazes backward, and with hope before, 
Knowing that from his works he nevermore 

Can henceforth part." 

The marks of sweat, of sacrifice, and of toil 
are on all of the world's greatest achievements. 
Correggio gave his pictures to the world, but at 
what a cost ! Nelson gave England victory, but 
at what a price ! There must be crucifixion and 
self-denial. Sacrifice is the principle of the uni- 
verse. It is deep-rooted in the instincts of hu- 
manity, and is of universal prevalence. The law 
of service is the law of sacrifice. The world's 
battles are not all over. Brave spirits are needed 
at the outposts. There are more worlds to con- 



120 Character Photography 

quer. We are summoned on the trysting-day 
to take our places at the battle's front. No gen- 
eral can tell a brave soldier until he gets into the 
fight. The blacksmith's chain is of no use until 
it is stretched by the weight. Questioning never 
wins victories. Promised lands are only entered 
by courage. "No, sir," said Robert Fulton, 
when a lad, "nothing is impossible." "The 
guard dies, but never surrenders," and "There 
are no Alps." With such mottoes as these the 
victories of the past have been gained. The sol- 
dier holds up an empty sleeve; he comes out with 
scars, but honor. When Lord Nelson was buried 
in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, the hearts of 
all England were stirred. The procession passed 
on amid the sobbing of the nation. There were 
thirty trumpeters stationed at the door of the 
cathedral, with instruments of music in hand, 
waiting for the signal, and when the illustrious 
dead arrived at the gates of St. Paul, these thirty 
trumpets gave one united blast, and then all was 
silent. Thus England honored its hero. And 
whether thus honored or not, the reward is worth 
all it costs, and the sacrifice is not in vain. 



Battle Scenes 121 

"They never fall who die 
In a great cause. The block may soak their gore; 
Their heads may sodden in the sun, their limbs 
Be strung to city gates and castle walls; 
But still their spirit walks abroad. 

Though years 
Elapse and others share as dark a doom, 
They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts, 
Which overpower all others, and conduct 
The world at last to freedom." 

And better days are coming. The poet Long- 
fellow believed in the proclamation of peace; but, 
as he looked about the world and noted its suf- 
fering and oppression and wars, he was almost 
led to doubt : 

"And in despair I bowed my head, 
There is no peace on earth, I said, 
For hate is strong, 
And mocks the song 
Of peace on earth, good will to men." 

But the poet has another and brighter vision, 
and hears another and sweeter note : 

"Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, 
God is not dead nor doth he sleep. 
The wrong shall fail, 
The right prevail, 
With peace on earth, good will to men." 



Chapter VIII 
HISTORIC VIEWS 



"As I sat, I mused and pondered, 
Through the realms of thought I wandered; 
Thinking of the past and ancient times, 

I heard in accents low, 

As it were, an echo, 
From the 'Phonographic Chimes.' " 

"Bells of the past, whose long forgotten music 
Still fills the wide expanse 
Tingeing the sober twilight of the Present 
With colors of romance." 



"\ ^ 7"E live not alone in our own age. We are 
* * linked to the remotest time by chains of 
cause and effect. In vain do we strive to isolate 
ourselves from what has been; one flash of the 
imagination, one backward glance of memory, 
and we dwell amid the scenes of long ago. The 
mystic past is before us, a visible presence, real 
and tangible. We stand awed in the dwelling- 
place of antiquity, or tread reverently the sacred 
courts of Time's most ancient sanctuary. The 
hieroglyphics become living characters, the pyra- 
mids look down upon thronging myriads, the 
confused tongues of Babel are harmonized into 
one, and the enigmas of the present are the com- 
monplaces of the past. We dwell in the long 
ago. We stand in the birthplace of thought, 
where civilization first molded order and form 
from chaos and violence, kindled the watchfires 
of progress, and knotted the threads of our re- 
motest destiny; where science first plumed its 

wings, and began its ceaseless flight amid revolv- 

125 



126 Character Photography 

ing centuries. We catch the first notes of na- 
ture's music, whose echoes have not yet died 
away. We behold the first act which begins the 
record of history, and which was the genesis of 
all other deeds. From the darkness of chaos 
gleams the morning twilight of creation's dawn. 
At the fiat of Omnipotence, Time swings from 
the battlements of eternity, to note and mark the 
movements of history. We are awed as we wit- 
ness the mighty throes of matter, and the up- 
heaving, one by one, of the pillars of the universe. 
The almost numberless aeons of geological 
epochs pass in panoramic view before us. Om- 
niscient thought and unchanging purpose lead 
on to final consummation and to completion in 
perfection and beauty. God invites us to visit 
this picture-gallery and con its treasures. 
Guided by the "old Sexton Time," and aided by 
the light of antiquity, and holding the keys of 
induction which are to unlock the secret cham- 
bers of the universe, we enter this temple of the 
past. We roam through its subterranean vaults 
and caverns; we traverse its meandering laby- 
rinths; we wander amid its catacombs where lie 



Historic Views 127 

buried the ruins of ages gone. Here are the 
mosaics of the Divine Artist. Here is the spark- 
ling diamond which is emblazoned with the 
brightest colors of the rainbow; here the glitter- 
ing coal, which carries us back to geological 
epochs by its stores of crystallized sunbeams; 
here the granite rock, traced with ferns and bear- 
ing the finger-marks of the Almighty. Above is 
the canopy of the skies, the great vault of im- 
mensity, glittering with its myriads of worlds. 

"When Science from Creation's face 
Enchanting visions draws; 
What lovely visions yield their place 
To cold material laws!" 

Again the panorama unfolds, and we are in 
the domain of ancient civilization. Guided by 
the milestones of history, we enter through the 
vestibule to the palace of thought, to explore its 
magical chambers, and view its treasures that 
have been gathered in it from the onrolling cen- 
turies. We visit the penetralia of philosophy, 
and see the subtle torches of its genius. We 
walk through the courts of poetry, and view its 
treasure stores. 



128 Character Photography 

"Burning thoughts in strength undying, 
Coined in words of long ago, 
Silver words which time's alchemist 
Give to-night a golden glow." 

If we go back to antiquity, we may gaze with 
rapture on those bright constellations which are 
the cynosure of the world of literature, and 
whose effulgent rays shall illume it for ages to 
come. Its poetry kindles a flame of lofty enthu- 
siasm, and rivets the attention by its magic 
power. Its philosophy touches the deep springs 
of the soul, and meets a responsive impulse in the 
human heart. From the annals of authentic his- 
tory and legends of chivalry, we draw noble and 
illustrious examples of patriotism and devotion, 
which awaken kindred feelings in our breasts, 
and quicken the soul anew for its duties. View- 
ing the world's history, and tracing the pathway 
of civilization we find it has been a progressive 
march along the ages, developing from the rude 
primitive form into a system majestic in its di- 
mensions and sublime in its achievements. 
From the simple rusticity and rude simplicity of 
ancient life we trace its course, like a majestic 



Historic Views 129 

river, widening and deepening as it flows onward 
along the years and centuries. 

"The thought we are thinking, 
Our fathers did think." 

Age after age, generation after generation, 
have been stirred by the same emotions, moved 
by the same motives, and acted in the same 
arena. The history of the earliest ages reveals 
at the heart the same kernel which is the nucleus 
of all the world's advancement. There have been 
epochal movements, and these serve as mile- 
stones or divisions. Egypt, Persia, Babylon, 
Greece, and Rome are settings in this mosaic, 
while a thousand little events and comparatively 
insignificant happenings fill in and complete the 
outline. Shadows like feudal despotism, harsh 
asceticism, blind intolerance, and fanatical fierce- 
ness, fall across the canvas, but the lights come 
out clearer and brighter, as touched by the fin- 
gers of Providence, and we see the Divine idea. 

"Through the ages one increasing purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process 
of the suns." 



130 Character Photography 

History is the speculum by whose convergent 
rays we see the past and read the records of man. 
Science is for it a camera-obscura magnifier. Art 
and literature are lamps and magnifying lenses 
by which its glories and beauties are unfolded. 
Egypt, "the gift of the Nile," first rises in promi- 
nence, and we trace it in the pyramids with their 
mystic hieroglyphics. Assyria and Babylonia, 
with their mysterious inscriptions, stand out from 
the background of ancient paganism. The 
"golden age" of Roman and Grecian supremacy 
in art and literature makes a glowing scene. 
Athenian genius and Roman talent have left clear 
traces. The moldering beauty of the Parthenon 
and the decaying grandeur of the Coliseum tell 
what they w T ere. Shaded, indeed, is the picture 
of the Middle Ages. It was enveloped by a dark- 
ness as intense as paganism, an ignorance and 
superstition as degrading as heathendom, and 
robed in garbs of piety more disgusting than 
Mohammedanism. The lights of liberty and 
freedom are not seen, and the "lamp of life" 
burned dimly in the inner courts of monasteries. 
But now comes "The Reformation." Luther 
stands with a lighted torch over the dark vortex 



Historic Views 131 

of feudal despotism. It shines with marvelous, 
expansive influence, spreading itself in a thou- 
sand forms and colors. Nations are touched into 
new life. Science and art are awakened. Genius 
is kindled anew, and religion, purified and bap- 
tized with a holy enthusiasm, enlightens a be- 
nighted world. Statesmen, philosophers, poets, 
artists, philanthropists, and a host of others, now 
throng the busy thoroughfares and make a varied 
scene too complex to analyze. The nineteenth 
century lies too close to us for us to see it in his- 
toric view. We have just emerged from its ac- 
tivities, and many of its best parts project over 
into the twentieth century, and are not com- 
pleted alone. Yet we know when we can view it 
at its right perspective; and when it stands on 
its pedestal in the gallery of time, alongside of 
the others which have preceded it, it will be the 
brightest and best of all. 

A famous general said to his soldiers when 
they were engaged in battle at the base of the 
pyramids, "Forty centuries are looking down 
on you." So the heritage of the past is ours. 
The long line of historic fact stretches back to 
the dawn of civilization. In the alcoves of his- 



132 Character Photography 

tory are stored the riches of science and the re- 
sults of philosophic investigation. From these 
we may gather the highest thought and the high- 
est aspirations. If, as Tennyson says, 

"I hold it truth, with him who sings, 
To one clear harp in divers tones, 
That men may rise on stepping stones 
Of their dead selves to higher things," — 

So also these dead centuries are the foundation 
of the pillared arches that tower about us in the 
present. What is history? A sublime tragedy, 
enacted mid ruins and relics with the hoariness 
of age; the drama of humanity, with its lurid 
story of battles and strife. Sometimes it is the 
annals of events of paramount importance, and 
again pages of useless byplay, mere episodes, 
much of which fades out, and much that, being 
distorted, will get its proper setting as time goes 
on. Much of it depends upon the workshop 
where the colors are mixed. Sometimes it car- 
ries us back to the earliest dawn, and regales us 
with legends and fairy tales; sometimes it is a 
record of personal valor and achievement that 
become a part of its story; while again it has 
mystical and fanciful tales, showing the peculiar 




Historic Views 133 

atmosphere of opinion and the tendencies and 
development of a race. Sometimes it gives the 
picturesque side of things, and breathes into 
dead facts the breath of life. Rich pictures, 
striking figures, move on the scroll, and a series 
of portraits are thrown upon the screen to tell 
the tale. Modern history tends to become philo- 
sophic, and tells the why as well as the what of 
human events. What tragedies have been en- 
acted on the human stage, — on the banks of the 
Nile; among the monuments of Thebes; on the 
plains of the Chaldees; along the mighty Eu- 
phrates; in Babylon, Tyre, and Sidon; behind the 
ancient walls of China and on the banks of the 
Ganges; in cultured Athens, and among the 
seven hills of Rome; on the Jordan, and along 
the shores of Galilee; on the brow of Olivet, and 
Jerusalem, with its Golgotha! 

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thy cross thou bearest now! 
An iron yoke is on thy neck, and blood is on thy brow; 
Thy golden crown, the crown of truth, thou did'st reject 

as dross; 
And now thy cross is on thee laid, the Crescent is thy 

cross." 

What dark crimes stain the pages of history ! 
It is a record of bloodshed and oppressions, so 



134 Character Photography 

monotonous as to become wearisome, — a series 
of brutal assassinations and bloody conspiracies, 
inquisitions and thumbscrews, guillotines and 
dungeons, long conflicts and bloody persecu- 
tions, encroachments of power that developed 
despots and tyrants. What surging billows of 
barbaric invasion, beaten back by advancing 
civilization! What a mighty sweep of armies 
and amazing campaigns of conquest and subju- 
gation ! What fierce and frenzied strife and life- 
long struggle of contending clans and factions, 
ending in tragic convulsions or total annihila- 
tion! What struggles of great monarchies, the 
dismemberment of kingdoms and the re-estab- 
lishment of empires, the overthrow of dynasties, 
the fall of imperial families, and the triumph of 
others! Strange, wild, romantic, and meteoric 
careers! One picture stands out as an exam- 
ple, — the strange, impulsive movement known 
as the Crusades. The land of Palestine was in 
the hands of the enemies of the faith, and the 
Holy Sepulcher was guarded by the infidel. 
Peter the Hermit, a Frenchman, began to preach 
a holy war. Attired in the coarsest garments, he 
traveled from place to place to awaken the people 



Historic Views 135 

from their lethargy. He was everywhere re- 
ceived with enthusiasm and heard with rapture. 
The whole fabric of European society was shaken 
to its foundation. Persons of all ranks and de- 
grees assumed the cross; even the children were 
enlisted in the holy cause; and soon thousands 
were on the march towards Jerusalem. The re- 
sult could be, and was, nothing but disastrous 
failure. Some good may have been accom- 
plished, but it was at too great a cost. 

So we have glimpses of strange, erratic strug- 
gles, resulting in scenes of carnage and violence, 
the fruitage of man's inhumanity to man, the 
outgrowth of the doctrine that might makes 
right, and the divine right of kings. Here we 
see agglomerations of men and contiguous na- 
tions with distinguishing characteristics and 
marked physiognomy. Some crystallize under 
the spirit of organization, while others show the 
marks of fickleness. Some ill-fated nations run 
their course and are buried out of sight, while 
others are increased and enlarged year by year. 
Some refused to fuse under the influence of prog- 
ress, and were crushed hopelessly or became pet- 
rified and lifeless, while others, catching its spirit, 



136 Character Photography 

were lifted to higher planes, and with them one 
period succeeded another in an unbroken series, 
and carried forward its ideas. And out of all 
these struggles and conflicts has emerged the 
present. 

"The old order changeth, giving place to new, 
And God fulfills himself in many ways." 

The old harpstrings may be broken, the 
monuments may be crumbling, the temples may 
be in ruins, the cities may be desolate, yet in the 
achievements of the past the noble efforts of its 
heroism, its bright emanations of thought, and 
the production of its immortal genius, there is an 
accumulation of power which transcends the 
passage of time. These things live and abide. 
And the power of reminiscence brings them all 
before us. 

"Each faintest trace the memory holds 
So darkly of departed years, 
In one broad glance the soul beholds, 
And all it was at once appears." 

These tragic facts of history may teach us 
many lessons. Greater opportunities and as 
great temptations are before us. Its best use 
may perhaps be to help us draw a better picture 



Historic Views 137 

ourselves. J. S. C. Abbott says, in a preface to 
one of his histories : "The one great truth taught 
in all these annals is, that there is no hope for the 
world but in the religion of the Bible." He only 
is the true philanthropist who offers the unceas- 
ing prayer, with corresponding exertions, "Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done, in heaven, so 
in earth." 



Chapter IX 
ON CROWDED STREETS 



"With Thee in busy crowded cities talk." 

'Even here do I behold 

Thy steps, Almighty! And here amidst the crowd 
Through the great city rolled, 
With everlasting murmur, deep and loud, 
Choking the ways that wind 
'Mongst the proud piles, the work of human kind." 



\]i 7E stand to-day amid the busy scenes of 
* * city life. What a fascination in the 
moving picture of the passing crowd! What 
strange sights are here presented! Here, amid 
its hurly-burly, we may study humanity as a 
heterogeneous conglomerate mass of money- 
makers and pleasure-seekers. Here the broker 
gambles in stocks and bonds, and builds up great 
fortunes and tears them down. Here the street- 
beggar wanders from door to door in search of 
bread, or, like Lazarus, sits in front of the rich 
man's palace asking for the crumbs that fall from 
his table. Here the lordly aristocrat rides be- 
hind a liveried driver, in an elegant equipage, 
while the thousands crowd the street-cars, "the 
poor man's carriage," or throng the thorough- 
fares on foot. Here may be seen the reeking 
filth and abject squalor of overcrowded tene- 
ment-houses. Here are the gilded saloon and 
gambling-hells, alluring and leading astray the 
unwary footsteps. Here the painted harlot plies 
her soul-destroying traffic, with all the arts that 

141 



142 Character Photography 

depraved human nature can suggest. Here 
great philanthropic movements are projected, 
and benevolent enterprises are carried forward 
for the amelioration of the condition of the 
masses. Here church-spires tower towards 
heaven, and chiming bells call the devout and 
reverent, the careless and erring ones, alike to 
worship. Here are palaces of luxury, and homes 
of magnificence, where the rich dwell. Here are 
the abodes of the poor. Who can describe the 
slums of a great city? Or picture the degraded, 
hopeless faces, the dull .eyes, and the languid 
bearing of those who dwell there, and against 
whom the tides of life beat so remorselessly? 
None are so miserable as the poor of a great 
city, where they are huddled together in crowded 
tenement-houses, with no sunlight, little com- 
fort, and dark, narrow stairways, reeking with 
filth and breeding pestilence. 

"Listen we can not hear them, 

With our faces turned away; 
Our hands all laden with baubles, 

Like children at their play. 
With hearts absorbed by our pleasures, 

Our selfish loss or gain, 
O, how can we hear creation's 

Great undertone of pain?" 



On Crowded Streets 143 

Alone in a great city at night ! The rattling 
street-cars and flying elevated trains confuse by 
their number. The people are thronging to their 
accustomed places of assemblage for pleasure. 
Luxuriant private conveyances roll by, convey- 
ing their occupants in evening dress to brilliant 
ball, or fashionable theater. Yonder stands a 
stately mansion, where, within its brilliantly- 
lighted halls, gather the elite for an evening of 
gayety and pleasure. Yonder is the great 
theater, where to-night the "star" actor appears, 
and thousands are thronging its corridors. Yon- 
der, in the slums, the multitudes are flocking 
to the variety shows and crowding the billiard- 
rooms and rum-holes. Yonder stands a Gothic 
church, an architectural beauty, but ghost-like 
in the shadow; for no welcome light gleams from 
its cathedral windows. O, when will the Church 
of God awaken to realize that, if it would save 
the masses, its doors must swing wide open every 
night of the week, and afford some counter- 
attraction to thousands of places of infamy and 
shame? Mighty and deep are the pulsations of 
life as they flow along the great arteries of trade 
and travel, Here is a great, seething mass of 



144 Character Photography 

humanity, with its incessant roar and clash of 
contending forces. These streams seem to flow 
on forever, surging, pushing, swaying backwards 
and forwards, lashing and dashing a turbid flood. 

"O, mighty city, is there any hour, 
From daybreak till another dawning comes, 
When the white dove of peace can drop her wings 
In sweet compassion o'er thy throbbing heart? 
Is there no respite from the thundering wheels, 
The clangor of the bells? Art thou not sick 
Of too much life? Canst thou not sleep 
While the calm stars a pitying vigil keep? 
Is there no shore in this loud stunning tide 
Whereon thy waves could break and then be still? 
Canst thou not lift thine eyes to yon blue heaven, 
And in its boundless peace hide thy unrest? 
Canst thou not cast the burden of thy care 
On the great Heart of Love beyond the stars?" 

Here, in this city life, amid towering walls, 
on paved streets, along narrow alleys, on busy 
thoroughfares, men are toiling for their daily 
bread, getting fleeting glimpses of happiness, 
meeting difficulties, facing privations, suffering 
ills, bearing burdens, and carrying sorrows. 
Within what little space how much of life is 
crowded; what high hopes and how much pain! 
Here we read the endless story of humanity. 
What tragedies are enacted here each passing 



On Crowded Streets 145 

hour ! What suggestive incidents of the humor 
and spice of life ! In these motley crowds, what 
exaggerated peculiarities! What a brilliant 
phantasma of confused figures and dazzling 
movement of form and color ! What strange fol- 
lies and fantastic pleasures among those massive 
buildings and narrow streets! What stirring 
emotions in this crowd of life, always pathetic, 
sometimes gay, sometimes sad! What a mur- 
mur of talk and conversation in the glittering 
shops ! What a living panorama of human life, 
with its present movement, and aspect of things ! 
What a mass of existence, viewed either as a 
whole, or in detail ! What a phenomenon, what 
a study! How shall we regard it? Shall we be 
lost in the crowd or maintain our identity? 
What a means of education to a keen observer, 
and to one who keeps closely in touch with its 
current, or one who looks beneath the surface! 
We watch this restless, quivering, human flood, 
this ceaseless effort for attainment, this aspiring 
and this striving; and out of this shifting phan- 
tasmagoria come some definitely-formed pur- 
poses and fixed principles. We are a part of this 

life. So we may well study it and take it to 
10 



146 Character Photography 

heart. It is the glass in which we may see our 
own reflection. Here we may learn our own 
pleasures, pity our own sorrows, read our own 
story, watch our own mental development, and 
foreshadow our own fate. You are "on 'change." 
How shall you meet its problems, face its respon- 
sibilities, measure up to its obligations? There 
is one great essential, an overmastering moral 
purpose. We need moral manhood in its very 
highest attainments on the streets of our modern 
cities. The fields of usefulness were never 
broader, the sphere of action never larger, nor 
the demand for earnest workers ever greater. 
We need not secularized religion, but spiritual- 
ized business. The Chinese have their gods in 
their shops and stores. We need our morals 
and religion in our business. The manhood 
needed is not menial nor enslaved. It does not 
blush, nor cower, nor cringe. It does not creep 
nor crawl. It stands erect. It does not walk on 
crutches, and does not need to be carried. It 
abides in strength. In its business methods it 
can be tested, analyzed, and cross-questioned. It 
is not supine or listless, and seeking only to curry 
popular favor. Wrongs may be intrenched, and 



On Crowded Streets 147 

unholy methods may be in vogue; but it does 
not excuse or palliate or succumb to the inevi- 
table, or simply do what others do, but stands for 
principle, conscience, and right. Lawlessness is 
one of "the dangers of the present. Mob violence 
is on the increase. Where the multitude is 
massed, there is great danger of disrespect for 
law and authority. Political vagaries have been 
expounded that are inimical to the public welfare. 
There is a lack of respect and obedience to con- 
stituted authority. The nihilist and ultra social- 
ist do not aim to reform, but to destroy. They 
wear the tri-colored insignia of revolution. But 
amid all the din, constitutional government 
abides. Neither in Church nor State can any 
"rule or ruin," or "rule and ruin" party, succeed. 
Perhaps, after all, the danger is not so great 
as it seems. We are reminded of the story told 
by General Grant in his "Memoirs." When in 
Mexico he was sent from headquarters across 
the country, in company with an older officer, 
to deliver some messages. They camped out on 
the way, far from any settlement. In the night 
he was much disturbed by the howling of 
coyotes. In the morning the officer referred to 



148 Character Photography 

it, and asked him how many he thought there 
were. Grant said, judging by the noise they 
made, he thought there must have been twenty. 
The other laughed and said, there were just two. 
The general remarked that, in his after experi- 
ence in political life, he found that you could not 
judge the size of the crowd by the noise they 
made. So we believe that, despite the noise, law 
and order will triumph, and that, in city and 
hamlet, a due respect for government and au- 
thority will prevail, and that the lawless element, 
now intrenched behind social and political forces, 
will be dislodged and destroyed. Let us fill our 
legislative, executive, and judicial departments 
of Government with men whose characters are 
unspotted and whose lives are noble and virtu- 
ous, and guard our cities with virtue, the true 
surveillant, destroy the saloon and its associate 
evils as centers of lawlessness, and put into our 
citizenship more moral fiber. 

Here the labor question comes to the fore- 
ground. The communist clamors for a division 
of property. The socialist would level all dis- 
tinctions of wealth. Here the labor agitator and 
walking delegate perform their tasks and agitate 



On Crowded Streets 149 

the question. There was some truth in the car- 
toon that represented Labor and Capital as 
about to shake hands, while in the distant back- 
ground stood a tramp and an Anarchist, who 
were quoted as saying, "If them fellows shake 
hands, you and me '11 have to work." By the 
enmassing of wealth, there have been encroach- 
ments upon the rights of labor. By injustice and 
oppression the problem has been complicated. 
By combinations of capital, labor has been 
robbed of its just recompense. There is too 
much of the spirit of the old ballad : 

"We will make them to work hard for sixpence a day, 
Though a shilling they deserve if they had their just pay; 
If at all they murmur, or say, ' 'T is too small,' 
We bid them choose whether they '11 work at all. 
And thus we do gain all our wealth and estate 
By many poor men that work early and late." 

Labor ought not to be made a drudgery. It 
ought to be a part of life's preparation. Con- 
ditions may change, but diligence and industry 
are essential. The rule expressed by the apostle 
holds good: "If any will not work, neither let 
him eat;" and "If any provide not for his 
own, he is worse than an infidel." Christianity 
demands for labor a just recompense. The com- 



150 Character Photography 

mon law of Israel protected the laborer, and even 
extended to the beast, for it said, "Thou shalt not 
muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn." 
The prophets thundered their anathemas against 
its oppression : "Woe unto him that buildeth his 
house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by 
wrong; that useth his neighbor's service without 
wages, and giveth him not for his work;" "I will 
be a swift witness against those that oppress the 
hireling in his wages." There must come a spirit 
of fraternity, of co-operation, and a willingness 
to arbitrate difficulties, before this question will 
reach its solution. 

Civic duties are prominent in our modern life. 
Citizenship implies the rights and privileges that 
inhere in a residence in any city and our relation 
to the Government under which we live. Paul 
boasted of his citizenship. Ours is a high privi- 
lege. We should bring to it our highest thought 
and noblest purpose. We should not disfran- 
chise ourselves. This is not a time for sancti- 
monious righteousness, but for a study of all 
political problems from a moral standpoint. We 
can not float with the tide, but with an earnest 
purpose and profound conviction consider finan- 



On Crowded Streets 151 

cial and legislative problems, principles under- 
lying the monetary system and social fabric. We 
do this as citizens, not as partisans. Parties are 
temporary, principles are eternal. 

When Vice-President, Roosevelt, in an ad- 
dress at Carnegie Hall, on "The Standard of Civic 
Righteousness and of Christian Faith and Con- 
duct," said : "We ask that these associations, and 
the men and women who take part in them, prac- 
tice the Christian doctrines which are preached 
from every true pulpit. The Decalogue and the 
Golden Rule must stand as the foundation of 
every successful effort to better either our social 
or our political life. 'Kear the Lord and walk in 
his ways/ and 'Let each, man love his neighbor 
as himself;' when we practice these two precepts, 
the reign of civic righteousness will be close at 
hand. Christianity teaches, not only that each 
of us must so live as to save his own soul, but 
that each must also strive to do his whole duty 
by his neighbor." 

The term politician has an unsavory reputa- 
tion, and politics is usually considered a game 
at which rogues play. But we must give it an- 
other meaning. A little boy said he wanted to 



152 Character Photography 

be a politician when he grew up, and when asked 
why, he said, "Because they throw mud at each 
other." The real definition is a suggestive one. 
"One versed in the science of government and 
the art of governing." To administer govern- 
ment is a high function. To make law is a noble 
calling. It has engaged the brightest and best 
minds of the centuries. It requires a maturity 
of intellect, a consciousness of duty, and a high 
moral purpose. Citizenship is a law-given right. 
We should not abrogate it. It is our birthright. 
Like Paul, we are free-born. A slave said: 
"Bredren, dis poor ole body ob mine is Massa 
Car's slave, de bones an' blood an' sinews. But, 
glory to God, my soul is de free man ob de Lord 
Christ." And we are free, soul and body. Garri- 
son said, "I am in earnest, I will not equivocate, 
I will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, 
and I will be heard." And he was. He, with 
others, heated the fires of opposition so hot that 
the manacles of the slaves fell from their arms, 
and slavery was roasted in the fiery furnace of 
popular indignation. And so the duties of the 
present must be met. We are all twentieth- 
century politicians, — ministers who make their 



On Crowded Streets 153 

pulpits, not places for "stump speeches," but 
forums for the discussion of great national issues; 
teachers who are to fathom the intricacies of po- 
litical economy; business men who are to put 
into practical operation in city government busi- 
ness principles; statesmen who recognize their 
opportunity to exalt morality and uphold right- 
eousness; aye, saints of God, whose hands are 
not gory with the stains of an offensive partisan- 
ship, but who, with clean hands and pure hearts, 
serve city and State as well as God. Accept your 
God-given trust as a Christian citizen and stand 
in your place; being true to God, true to self, 
true to principle, and thus be true to your coun- 
try's best interests. 

"Onward, while a wrong remains 

To be conquered by the right; 
While oppression lifts a finger 

To affront us by his might; 
While an error clouds the reason, 

Or a sorrow gnaws the heart; 
Or a slave awaits his freedom, 

Action is the wise man's part." 



Chapter X 
IN QUIET NOOKS 



"Far from the busy haunts of men." 

"The world is too much with us; late and soon, 
Spending and getting, we lay waste our powers." 

"Come ye apart and rest a while." 



HPO-DAY the rush and roar and tumult are 
-■■ hushed and silent, and we walk in paths 
where the quiet forces are at work, and those 
influences that are secret and hidden teach their 
lessons. How full nature is of just such forces, 
which, although hidden, reveal themselves by 
their effects, and all are working within their 
secret offices, molding for man the beautiful and 
sublime ! The germination of seeds, the growth 
of plants, and the development of fruit are phys- 
ical phenomena which show the power of some 
unseen indwelling principle, unceasingly at work, 
fearful in its grander operations, and wonderful 
in its gentler developments. A dark seed opens 
into a flower, living, lustrous, and fragrant. A 
bud bursts forth blossoming in beauty and ripen- 
ing in fullness. A tiny acorn expands, rises, and 
spreads into the monarch oak of the forest. 
Here is a majestic tree in which there is a mutual 
connection of every minute leaf, with the root 
through which it draws its life blood, and thus 
towers heavenward in the grandeur of its 

157 



158 Character Photography 

strength. We may enter nature and watch its 
secret forces. We may walk its beautiful avenues 
to "the music of the spheres." We may descend 
to its hidden chambers, and behold its golden 
wealth displayed on every side. We may study 
the alchemy which changes gross particles of 
matter into symmetrical forms. There is some- 
thing inspiring in examining its intricate work- 
ings, something invigorating in its mystic touch. 
The thoughtful observer finds it 

"A window through which we may look 
To infinitude itself." 

We may contemplate its silent forces. Gravi- 
tation draws all to a common center, and acts on 
all bodies throughout the wide regions of un- 
measured space. Cohesion holds the particles 
of matter enchained, and chemical attraction 
works no less mysteriously by the exercise of its 
occult power, giving determinate and fixed 
forms to every kind of material creation. These 
silent, unseen forces are the power which, like a 
potent spirit, 

"Invests each atom with a force supreme, 
Framed the mightiest mountains of the world, 
And each leaf and flower by its strong law restrains." 



In Quiet Nooks 159 

How quiet and hidden are God's greatest 
works! Mystery is the handmaid of his infini- 
tude. "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing." 
Sometimes we just want to be quiet. Silence! 
How expressive ! All is still ! Thought is silent, 
deep within the mind. Silent falls the dew, silent 
roll the stars in the unfathomable blue. Worship 
is silent, quiet, waiting with bowed heads and 
folded hands. Silent vigils and silent prayers, 
like heavenly manna, feed the soul. The best 
lives are not the noisiest ones. Many are like 
the mountain stream, hidden in the forest, se- 
cluded and sequestered. In the majority of lives 
there are few stirring episodes. They shrink 
from observation, dwell in some quiet nook, 
manifesting rugged honesty, intense industry, 
grave tranquillity, wise discretion, and unflinch- 
ing principles of morality. Their strength of 
purpose "comes from a hidden source apart." 
Who can sound the depths of a soul and fathom 
what lies there? Who can measure the potencies 
that slumber there? 

We stood one day in the engine-room at the 
World's Fair in Chicago, viewing the Corliss 
engine. It was a marvel of mechanical genius, 



160 Character Photography 

each part perfectly adjusted, and its movements 
regular and correct. But there was nothing 
about its external appearance or its quiet move- 
ment to indicate its mighty power, or that it gen- 
erated the force that set all the machinery of the 
great exposition in motion. Thus much of the 
force of character in many lives is so quiet, and 
even obscure, that we do not realize its potency 
unless we trace it out in its various ramifications 
of society. To-day, in quietude and hidden re- 
treats, the men who are to move the forces of 
Government and society to-morrow, are being 
trained and cultured. 

Who does not love the quiet of the evening 
hour? Its silence is very sweet and soothing; its 
lengthening shadows invite repose; its calm pre- 
vails over outward care. Every lowly flower is 
expanded to catch the last golden gleam of sun- 
shine. In some still retreat of prayer we wait 
in reverent silence. In the quiet of the voiceless 
night there may be peaceful reverie. It has a 
tranquil influence. 

"The stream is calmest when it nears the tide, 
And flowers are sweetest at the eventide, 
And birds most musical at close of day." 



In Quiet Nooks 161 

It is the quiet hour. A mother, with a large 
family and many household cares, was accus- 
tomed at the twilight hour to go quietly away to 
a chosen retreat for meditation and prayer. 
A friend had remonstrated with her for it as a 
neglect of home duties, and, chiding her for it, 
said her place was with her family at that time. 
As a protest against the rebuke, and for a reply 
to it she wrote : 

"I love to steal awhile away 
From every cumbering care, 
And spend the hour of setting day 
In humble, grateful prayer. 

I love in solitude to shed 

The penitential tear, 
And all His promises to plead, 

Where none but God can hear. 

Thus, when life's toilsome day is o'er, 

May each departing ray 
Be calm as this impressive hour, 

And lead to endless day." 

So the holy fragrance of evening prayer 
spreads over earth and sky a mantle of repose. 
And as the stars come out one by one, and the 
shadows lengthen, we sing : 

"Abide with me! Fast falls the eventide, 

The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide." 
ii 




162 Character Photography 

How the Master loved to go into solitude 
and retirement! He had lonely vigils on the 
mountain-side, all night long in communion with 
the Father. On the mountain he was transfig- 
ured. How often he passed silently down the 
steep sides of Cedron, and crossed over into 
Gethsemane ! There he went that last night be- 
fore his death, under the mellow light of the 
Passover moon. Before him lay Olivet, and be- 
yond it Bethany, with its quiet home and loved 
retreat where he had often rested. Behind him 
lay Moriah, crowned with its snow-white temple, 
that ought to have been a place of prayer, but 
had become a den of thieves. And Jerusalem, 
the chosen city of God — but it had rejected him! 
Into the quiet retreat of Gethsemane he goes 
to pray. 

"He knelt, the Savior knelt and prayed, 
Where but his Father's eye, 
Looked through the lonely garden's shade." 

There are lonely, quiet places in every life 
journey — times when we are turned aside from 
the beaten highway, and called to walk the 
desert path, to go into the wilderness where our 



In Quiet Nooks 163 

heads rest on pillows of stone, and, like Jacob 
of old, 

"Out of my stony griefs 
Bethels I '11 raise." 

Sometimes we are like Elijah the prophet, 

called to the brook Cherith, to be fed by ravens, 

and to see it running lower day by day, until it 

is dry. Ah, life has its "shut-ins," with pinched 

faces, wrinkled with pain; bereaved ones, with 

the widow's veil; and those whose hearts are 

deeply shrouded with sorrow. 

"Called aside! 
From the glad working of thy busy life, 
From the world's ceaseless stir of care and strife, 
Into the shade and stillness, by thy Heavenly Guide, 
For a brief space thou hast been called aside." 

Hours of solitude! How are they spent? 
To be alone, and shut out the world and look 
within; to study our motives, analyze our pur- 
poses, and plan our future. 

"Within the chambers of my heart 

There is one cloistered nook, 
Whereto I turn my frequent steps, 

That I may pray, and look 
Into the future's far-off span, 

Undimmed by mists of sense; 
The while my soul more patient grows, 

More sure of recompense. 



164 Character Photography 

This holy place is mine by right, 

Dear-bought from Love's own hand; 
Within its soul-environment 

I feel that I can stand 
Erect, freeborn, a child of God, 

Whose right it is to reign 
Triumphant over pain and sin, 

Till Death itself is slain." 

There is no one but can appreciate the senti- 
ment and echo the feeling expressed by the sweet 
singer, Eugene Field, when he says: 

"It seems to me I 'd like to go 
Where bells do n't ring, nor whistles blow, 
Where clocks do n't strike, nor loud gongs sound, 
And I 'd have stillness all around. 

Not real stillness, but just the trees' 
Low whisperings, or the hum of bees, 
Or brooks' faint babbling over stones 
In strangely, softly tangled tones, — 

Or maybe a cricket or katydid, 
Or the songs of birds in the hedges hid, 
Or just some such sweet sounds as these 
To fill a tired heart with ease. 

If 't were n't for sight and sound and smell, 

I 'd like a city pretty well; 

But when it comes to getting rest, 

I like the country lots the best 

Sometimes it seems to me I must 
Just quit the city's din and dust, 
And get out where the sky is blue; 
And say, now, how does it seem to you?" 



In Quiet Nooks 165 

Fortunate we are if we can go up some 
mountain canon, amid its bowlders and gorges, 
into its fastnesses, surrounded by crags and cran- 
nies, and hear the deep roar of the mountain 
torrent and cataract, where the light of the sun 
seldom penetrates; or to climb some lone moun- 
tain height, where human footsteps have seldom 
trod, some Alpine peak or towering crag, and 
look out into immensity or down into some 
abysmal depth; or stand in the crater of some 
extinct Vesuvius, with its scarred records of the 
upheaval of subterranean forces all about us. 
We may visit some mighty ruin with moss- 
grown walls, which, explained, reveals the secret 
of the past; or view some lonely old castle by the 
sea, that has defied the lashing of old ocean's 
waves for centuries, the ancestral home of some 
ancient lord; or a palace like the Alhambra, beau- 
tiful in ruins, though only a remnant of its former 
glory. We may go out to some wayside inn, in 
its rural simplicity, and drink out of some 

"Moss-covered bucket that hangs in the well;" 

walk over meadows of sunburnt grass, or wan- 
der in some quiet glade in sylvan gloom, along 



166 Character Photography 

some lovers' lane, far from busy scenes. We may 
look up to some cathedral dome, and listen to 
its vesper chimes, or, entering its abbey cloisters, 
loiter amid its long naves and pillared arches, 
and gaze upon its beautiful mosaics, its sculp- 
tured Madonnas, its festooned flowers and fruits, 
and in its dim cathedral light pause, and think, 
and worship. 

Such scenes promote the spirit of meditation. 
Meditation is the closing of the eyes to things 
that distract, and the steadfast setting of the 
mind on things unseen. It must be free from 
disturbance, and demands deep faith. "The 
spirit needs meditation as the day needs the 
night." The heart grows sick and the mind 
cynical. We grow tired of so much tinselry and 
tawdry show and fleeting vanity. We close our 
eyes to it all, see with the inward eye, and think 
on nobler things. The voices of the world's dis- 
cord and strife are hushed, and we listen to 
sweeter melodies. We walk as seeing the invis- 
ible, and hear words that are inaudible. A calm 
spirit of contemplation gives quiet insight into 
realities. The soul is transformed by it, the mind 



In Quiet Nooks 167 

composed and absorbed, the passions controlled, 
the will subdued, and deep down in the heart will 
sing the quiet waters of peace that flow from 
God. Like the placid waters of a lake which re- 
ceive and reflect the image of the infinite heav- 
ens, the soul thus absorbed will reflect the image 
of the Heavenly, and, being transfused by its 
light, the face will shine with the radiance of 
beauty. Mystics and saints turn aside from the 
crowded ways to contemplate in the cloister the 
life of Christ. So in meditation the harp of life 
vibrates with sweet music, like the cooing lullaby 
of the mother to the child in the hushed and 
darkened chamber; like the rhapsody of celestial 
music at the midnight hour. The soul's unrest 
is hushed, its lashing waves are stilled, its burn- 
ing fever allayed, its grief assuaged, and its cup 
of tears dried. But for such meditation, such 
solitude, such quiet resting-places, hearts would 
break and lives would be wrecked. Alas! alas! 
The rush of life — heed it, check it. Better not 
snap the brittle thread, better not rush headlong 
into crime or debauchery, into dissipation or vice, 
or ruthlessly snatch away the God-given boon. 



168 Character Photography 

"Rest is not quitting 
This busy career, 
Rest is the fitting 
Of self to its sphere." 

Rest the soul and quiet the mind by seeking 
some place of retirement and by meditation upon 
God's goodness and the plenitude of his mercy. 
Let the spray of some mountain streamlet, as it 
dashes over the stones, lave the weary brow, and 
the dull monotony of some limpid stream still 
the aching breast. We draw the heart-strings 
too tense in this strenuous life. There is too 
much wear and tear, haste and tumult, anxiety 
and worry. Amid competitions that are steadily 
growing keener, there is a fearful nervous ex- 
haustion. Sometimes, disgusted and dissatisfied 
with the artificialities of life, dull ennui eats out 
the heart. And again we are under a nervous 
tension, racing along at a mile-a-minute pace. 
What better thing than to get fishing-tackle, or 
book and hammock, and hie away to some shel- 
tered nook in the forest depths, and there, by 
limpid pool or quiet brook, whose crystalline 
clearness mirrors the heavens, with all feeling of 
restraint gone and freedom from conventionali- 



In Quiet Nooks 169 

ties, seek relaxation and recreation amid new 
environments? How it acts like a tonic on the 
mind, braces the constitution, and gives buoy- 
ancy of spirit, — just as the tuner keys up the 
chords ! How restful to roam in the forest gray, 
in the wild woods, among dense foliage, and 'mid 
springing flowers and singing birds! Perhaps 
you pluck the lilies. While "they toil not, neither 
do they spin," they extract the whitest hues from 
blackest soil, and sweetest perfume from noxious 
odors. How they rebuke our paroxysms of effort 
and feverish querulousness ! Amid such associ- 
ations the worries that waste our. life disappear, 
and there come instead a radiant joy, tranquil 
gladness. In such an atmosphere we feel thank- 
ful for the providences of God, and he is all lov- 
ing. There we gain new strength to journey till 

"The pilgrimage path shall no more be trod; 
A rest remains for the people of God." 

Then we shall be carried to some quiet nook, 
some consecrated spot, to sleep beneath the 
shade and flowers; some beautiful resting place 
of the dead, some "God's acre," to lie down in 
after the journey of life is ended. 



170 Character Photography 

"Place for the dead! What fairer place 
Than here amid the hillocks green, 
Where through the tranquil willows chase 
The sunbeams o'er the scented grass, 
By many a fairy dell and pass, 

To cheer its dust below, I ween? 
Here stars upon our turf shall braid 
The glory of their evening glance, 
While morning beams around us dance, 
And kiss the flowers that cluster by." 

A quiet house for the earthly remains of the 
departed to rest in until the resurrection morn, 
the city of the "loved and lost," with its leafy 
shade and blooming flowers. Here the living 
stray, here the bereaved come to weep, here the 
devout meditate, and here all strew the graves 
with sweetest flowers. 

"Lay me down in the quiet churchyard, 

Whose deep, solemn stillness oft made 
My heart in boyhood tremble 

Whene'er I approached its shade. 
Let me rest near my fond, sainted mother, 

Who made childhood's home so bright; 
Lay me down near my noble father, 

Who has passed to the sweet home of light, 
When flowers o'er my grave will be sighing, 

With winds from the gold-tinted west, 
And friends I have loved oft will scatter 

The violets of spring o'er my breast." 



Chapter XI 
IN THE DARK ROOM 



'Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, 

Lead thou me on! 
The night is dark, and I am far from home; 
Lead thou me on!" 

"Night brings out the stars as sorrow 
Shows us truth." 

"Behind the dim unknown 

Standeth God within the shadows 
Keeping watch above his own." 



O OME beautiful day we go out for a stroll, 
**-' taking with us our kodaks. From the 
varied scenes about us we catch some views of 
shady nooks, and flowing streams, and azure 
sky. When the day is over, we carry home our 
"little black box," which contains all the re- 
sults of the day's tramp. There all the views 
lie hidden on the film; but if we were to expose 
it now, it would look blank and featureless, and 
we would ruin it forever. We must take it into 
the dark room, and put it into the tray of de- 
veloping fluid, and wait for fixed results. So 
with all of life's pictures. They must pass 
through the dark room to be fixed and devel- 
oped. We shrink from it, and yet, what will 
be the result without it, but undeveloped char- 
acter, blurred negatives, unfinished lives? 

Sacrifice is explained by the law of compen- 
sation. We get so much better than we give up. 
The child cries when the mother snatches away 
the bottle of poison; but by it she spares its 

173 



174 Character Photography 

life. Out of suffering have emerged the strong- 
est souls. Through tribulation we put on our 
coronation robes. It may be the condition of 
the highest blessing, the influence that is to 
purify and to improve, to bring out the features, 
and to develop the character. Some one has 
said that a part of the city of Venice is built 
upon charred piles that have been driven down 
through the waters of the Adriatic; and in the 
course of ages these charred piles may become 
the pure, hard substance known as diamond, 
and that at the last the foundations of the beau- 
tiful Queen of the Adriatic may have some dia- 
mond gleams within its darkness. Ruskin, in 
his "Ethics of the Dust," calls our attention to 
the silent forces of nature, which never appear 
so grand as when they transmute baser materials 
into higher forms. The pool of slime is trans- 
muted by the action of light and heat, so that 
the clay hardens into blue sapphire and the sand 
into burning opal. So in the dark room, by the 
action and transmuting influence of Divine 
grace, that which is slimy and uncouth is 
changed into gems that sparkle and are fit to 
shine in an immortal crown. 



In the Dark Room 175 

Phillips Brooks said: "The times that make 
us weakest, and that force our weakness most 
upon us, and make us most know how weak we 
are — those are our coronation-days, the days 
of sickness, days of temptation, days of doubt, 
days of discouragement, days of bereavement, 
and days of aching loneliness, which come when 
the strong voice is silent, the dear face is gone. 
Those are the days when Christ sees most clearly 
the cross of our need upon our foreheads, and 
comes to serve us with his love/' 

When the sun is eclipsed, the astronomer 
is able to see the fountains of glowing hydrogen 
that rise out of the inner substance of it, and 
project their splendors for thousands and thou- 
sands of miles beyond its surface. So when the 
light is shut out of our lives, there is often re- 
vealed a beauty we might not otherwise see. So 

we sing : 

"Rather walking with Him by faith, 
Than walking alone in the light." 

The Alpine guide blindfolds the nervous 
traveler as they cross the terrible chasm. There 
is no danger, but to the unaccustomed eye it 
seems terrific. Thus our Heavenly Guide puts 



176 Character Photography 

the shadow of a hand across our vision. It 
shuts out the light that might blur and mar 
our faith. 

"I do not ask my cross to understand, 
My way to see; 
Better in darkness just to feel Thy hand, 
And follow Thee." 

Edison thus tells the story of the invention 
of the phonograph : "I was singing one day into 
the mouthpiece of a telephone when my finger 
touched a wire that pricked it. It suggested the 
idea of the phonograph, and I worked it out; 
but I had a good many burned fingers before 
it was completed." So under the biting acids 
character is crystallized, trouble has its remedial 
side, and sorrow is ever transmuted. 

There is a new idea in developing pictures. 
It is that heat accelerates chemical action, and 
that a hot developing fluid makes a better neg- 
ative. This is also true in the chemistry of life. 
Selfishness and carnality are burned out of the 
heart by the hot developer of affliction. And 
as the purest ore comes from the hottest fur- 
nace, so the noblest souls are refined in the 
hottest fires. Tribulation, affliction, and oppres- 



In the Dark Room 177 

sion are the alchemists by whom the dross is 
etherealized, the carnal spiritualized, and the 
baser metal is transmuted into pure gold. 

When Michael Angelo had become blind 
and decrepit with age, he was led, morning by 
morning, into the museum of the Vatican, that 
he might delight his artistic sense by passing 
his hand over the wonderful torsos. It was the 
deprivation of sight that brought the cunning 
of the master hand into closer fellowship with 
the canvas and the marble. The developing 
process is not always easy. We shrink from 
the dark room with its biting acids and submerg- 
ing process. But we must not judge before the 
time, only lie still until He traces all the linea- 
ments, until all the features come out, until He 
brings to light the hidden things, and all will 
be made plain. 

"Then let us strive and work and wait, 
As those who see the open gate, 

The glory in our night; 
So that at last through Christ, the Way, 
We, too, may tread the land of day, 

Where God, the Lord, is Light." 

done in the dark room! There are trials 

no one else can share, burdens we must bear 
12 



178 Character Photography 

alone. Sometimes these are awful hours of dark- 
ness and gloom. 

"How dark the night! 
Nor light of moon or star; 
E'en twilight shade 
And hopeful shadow 
Disappear, to sink afar 
Into the blackness. 

My eager eyes 

Strain out amidst the gloom 

To catch one line 

Of wakening light 

That, erstwhile rose to loom 

Above the darkness. 

But none appears! 

O Thou, in whom nor shade 

Nor darkness is, 

Illume this earth-path, 

Dim and tortuous grown, 

With Thine own brightness!" 

And so in our lives. At times it is pitch 
dark, every star in the sky of hope gone out. 
Then, when we are nearly exhausted, wearied, 
and worn, we see a shadow, a light, and we 
hear a voice out of the darkness. It says, "It 
is I." 'T is the Master. It is light, and we are 
safe. 



In the Dark Room 179 

"Dark the night, the snow is falling; 
Through the storm are voices calling; 
Guides mistaken and misleading, 
Far from home, and help receding; 
Vain is all those voices say! 
Show me Thy way! 

Blind am I, as those who guide me; 
Let me feel Thee close beside me! 
Come as light into my being! 
Unto me be eyes, All-seeing! 
Hear my heart's one wish, I pray! 
Show me Thy way! 

Thou must lead me, and none other, 
Truest Lover, Friend, and Brother; 
Thou art my soul's shelter, whether 
Stars gleam out, or tempests gather; 
In Thy presence night is day; 
Show me Thy way." 

The dark room shows the defects in the 
negative. The searching tests of affliction re- 
veal to us how much of the old leaven of corrup- 
tion is still hid in our hearts; how cold and gray 
are the ashes on the once burning altar of devo- 
tion and love; how the damp air of worldly con- 
formity has rusted the once polished mirror that 
gave back the image of Jesus only; how the 
sight of evil has photographed its own dark like- 
ness on our sensitive souls. O, there are many 



180 Character Photography 

humbling discoveries made of secret, unsus- 
pected, unrepented sins; and the painful con- 
viction forces itself slowly upon our minds that 
we have made less progress in the Christian life. 
that we are less spiritually minded, less meet for 
heaven, than we imagined ! YVe are made a won- 
der and a grief to ourselves; and. with deep self- 
abasement and self-renunciation, we bow down 
at the foot of the cross. 

"What in me is dark 
Illumine." 

The X-ray with its power is able to dis- 
cover substances incased in a dark object. What 
secrets are revealed in the dark room ! What 
the scalpel does in laying bare the secret work- 
ings of the human body, the light of God's 
truth does in exposing the secret life of the 
moral nature. What the X-rays are in revealing 
and photographing hidden dark objects, the 
eye of Almighty God is in discovering the 
thoughts and intents of the heart. In the flash- 
light of its piercing glance, all is disclosed, as 
in the light of his holiness and glory. Before 
it lies the whole moral nature, as an open book. 



In the Dark Room 181 

It analyzes the deepest thought, the subtlest in- 
tent, that lurks in the breast. It reaches into 
the region where the bosom of the soul heaves 
and the life of the spirit throbs. There is a soul 
inquisition. No rack or confession can exact 
the entire truth, but the searching light of God's 
eye brings it all out. Through "the peepholes 
of the sky" he looks down into men's hearts as 
they walk the secret places. 

An experiment in photography was recently 
communicated to the Academy of Science. It 
attempted to photograph the beatings of the 
heart! Thus the Almighty photographs the 
thoughts, all the motives, intents, and feelings, 
and all the passing purposes. In an operation 
the heart was laid bare, and the surgeons could 
see its beating. So all things are laid bare be- 
fore the Divine Surgeon. Sit still and let the 
Divine X-rays do their work. Do n't flinch, 
but exclaim with the psalmist, "Search me, O 
God, and know my heart; try me, and know my 
thoughts." 

"O Lord, my God, do then thy holy will, 
I will lie still. 
I will not stir, lest I forsake thine arm, 
And break the charm." 



1 82 Character Photography 

In photography, after requisite exposure, a 
faint image is secured; but it requires develop- 
ment, and this must take place under favorable 
circumstances. The light must be shut out. 
We ought to have a larger spirit of self-denial, 
to give up selfish aims, and to get away from the 
littleness of self-seeking. We should deny our- 
selves in service, spend and be spent. Yet how 
little the highest natures and the greatest sac- 
rifices are understood! Men are so short- 
sighted, can not comprehend, and get so easily 
bewildered in the presence of real sacrifice. The 
X-rays reveal the fact that certain substances 
are more sensitive than others. So let us be 
tender and susceptible to the holy influences 
about us. Whitefield said: "I have just put 
my soul as a blank into the hands of Christ, my 
Redeemer, and desired him to write on it what 
he pleases. I know it will be his image." 

By discovery in photography, light writes 
itself; that is, the light reflected from an object 
writes the object, by a mysterious process, upon 
the susceptible page that is exposed to it. So 
the light of God's truth may be reflected on our 



In the Dark Room 183 

lives, until we are able to see our image. Stand- 
ing before it, we are absorbed, entranced, and 
are changed and transformed from glory to 
glory, into the Divine image; and it shines with 
a Divine splendor. Thus is God's purpose real- 
ized in our lives. 

In the dark room we see the work of the 
chemical element. Just outside the spectrum, 
in the dark, there is one entirely insulated ray, 
called the chemical ray. It is this that unites 
the elements and touches the reflection, making 
it clear and permanent. So in the spiritual 
realm, prayer brings the mind to immediate con- 
templation of the truth, and holds it there, until, 
by comparison and aspiration, the proper asso- 
ciation is formed; and by this subtle process and 
affinity it is rendered sensitive, and a true im- 
pression is made. 

The photographic plate is prepared in the 
dark. So in darkened chambers of sorrow and 
on sick beds the Divine Photographer prepares 
our hearts for life's duties. David is in the cave 
at Adullam, Joseph in prison, Daniel at Babylon, 
Paul on the block, and the early Church in the 



184 Character Photography 

catacombs. One who had been an invalid for 
fifteen years wrote, "My heart keeps singing 
all the time." Another says: 

"I have no care, O Blessed Will, 
For all my cares are thine; 
I live in triumph, Lord, for thou 
Hast made thy triumph mine." 

Helen Keller, who has been deaf, dumb, and 
blind from infancy, when asked what was the 
secret of her cheerfulness, wrote : "The keynote 
of my life is this : always to regard as mere im- 
pertinences of fate the handicaps which were 
placed upon my life, almost at the beginning. I 
resolved that they should not crush or dwarf 
my soul, but rather be made to 'blossom, like 
Aaron's rod, with flowers.' " 

One day a skilled oculist said to a patient 
after a careful and studious examination of the 
eyes, "It is a cataract." The life was young, 
the future was bright, and now a shadow falls; 
but the heart was brave, and the faith clear 
and steadfast. Then came the dreary, weary 
days of waiting, the conflicting hopes and fears, 
the dreadful uncertainty, but, mid it all, calm 
trust. And then came the operation, the pain 



In the Dark Room 185 

and darkness; and then light and sight, hopes 
realized, prayers answered, and joy unbounded. 

"The way is dark, my child, but leads to light; 
I would not have thee always walk by sight. 
My dealings now, thou canst not understand; 
I meant it so; but I will take thy hand, 
And through the gloom lead safely home 
My child!" 

"For a small moment have I forsaken thee, 
But with great mercies will I gather thee." 

Often dark clouds hover over us, and settle 
down about us. The leadings of our lives, and 
the providences overshadowing our steps, tran- 
scend our knowledge. An unseen Hand moves 
the pieces on the chess-board. Every enigma 
is not interpreted at once. When working out 
designs of unmingled love, God conceals the pur- 
poses of his grace. We can not always see the 
way, and the steps seem sharp and strange. 

"O, heart of mine, be patient! 

Some glad day, 
With all life's puzzling problems 

Solved for aye, 
With all its storms and doubtings 

Cleared away; 
With all its storms and all its doubtings past, 
It shall be thine to understand at last. 



1 86 Character Photography 

Be patient; some sweet day 

The anxious care, 
The fears and trials, and the 

Hidden snare, 
The grief that comes upon thee 

Unaware, 
Shall with the fleeting years be laid aside, 
And thou shalt then be fully satisfied. 

Be patient; keep thy life-work 

Well in hand; 
Be trustful where thou canst not 

Understand; 
Thy lot, whate'er it be, is 

Wisely planned; 
Whate'er its mysteries, God holds the key; 
Thou well canst trust him, and bide patiently." 

Christ my Savior went this very way ! 

"Christ leads me through no darker rooms 
Than he went through before." 

Out in the desert he was sorely tempted. 

By the grave of Lazarus he wept. Under the 

shades of Gethsemane he sweat great drops of 

bloody sweat. On Calvary he cried, "My God, 

why hast thou forsaken me?" 

"Since thou on earth hast wept, 
And sorrowed oft alone, 
If I must weep with thee, 
My Lord, thy will be done." 

Death is the dark room through which we 
must pass to enter our Father's house. It is 



In the Dark Room 187 

not an easy thing to hear the physician say, 
"There is no hope." But if we put death in the 
right perspective, the view is not gloomy. Put 
along with it resurrection glory and heaven and 
eternity. Death is temporary, resurrection is 
eternal. Death is farewell and lamentation, the 
breaking up of plans, ghastly and heart-break- 
ing. But resurrection is power, victory, tri- 
umph, reunion, and eternal fellowship. "O 
death, where is thy sting; O grave, where is thy 
victory?" "Yea, though I walk through the 
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no 
evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, 
they comfort me." Let Christian faith sing her 
glad song of immortality: 

"Some perfect day I shall not need 

To bend my brows o'er baffling tasks; 

Some perfect day my eyes will read 
The meaning hid 'neath clouding masks; 

Some perfect day my word and deed 
Will fill the ideal my spirit asks. 

Dear perfect day of days to me, 
Which safe the steadfast heaven doth keep, 

Deep filled with love and rest, for me, 
Close pressed with sheaves I yet shall reap, 

When they who watch beside me see< 
Only that I have fallen asleep." 



Chapter XII 
THE DEVELOPING LAMP 



"Save for my daily range 
Among the pleasant fields of Holy Writ, 
I might despair." 

'Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my 
path." 



HTHE Bible is the lamp that sheds the light 
■*■ by which Christian character is developed. 
How do we look under the pure, white light of 
God's truth? It acts like a magnifying-glass to 
reveal all discrepancies. Under its rays all the 
imperfections come out, all the inaccuracies and 
inconsistencies are seen. The Bible is a reflec- 
tion of the Divine glory. In it we see the majesty, 
the power, and the wisdom of God. It brings 
to bear on the hearts and lives of men all the 
effects of the Divine. It reflects the rays of the 
Godhead into the heart of the world. It con- 
centrates and focalizes the light so we may be- 
hold it and enjoy its beauties. There is in Rome 
an elegant fresco by Guido, called "The Aurora." 
It covers the lofty ceiling of a beautiful hall- 
way. But this difficulty was experienced in 
viewing it. The tourist, looking up at the pic- 
ture from the pavement, found it grew weari- 
some. After a time the head would get dizzy, 
and the figures grow indistinct. Many would 

soon turn away. To avoid this difficulty, and 

191 



192 Character Photography 

remedy it, the owner of the gallery placed a 
broad mirror near the floor, where the sight- 
seer may sit down and enjoy the fresco above 
by viewing the reflection. There is no weariness, 
no dizziness, no indistinctness, only delight and 
rapture, as all is plain in the mirror before them. 
So God has brought otherwise inaccessible light 
and truth to the world through His Word. In 
it we behold, as in a mirror, the glory, the truth, 
and the grace of God. It reflects the excellency 
of his heavenly character. The old monks had 
a superstitious notion that, if they would gaze 
constantly and intently upon the figure of Christ 
on the cross which was hung upon their cell 
wall, that marks of it would appear on their own 
bodies, the prints of the nails in their hands and 
feet, and the scar of the spear-gash in their side. 
We repudiate such a materialistic conception; 
but we do know that, if we gaze steadfastly into 
God's truth, the Christ life and spirit will be de- 
veloped in ours, and we will reflect the Divine 
image. Charles Simeon kept the picture of 
Henry Martyn in his study, and the eye was 
ever upon him, and it seemed to say, "Be ear- 
nest; don't trifle, don't trifle!" So "whoso 



The Developing Lamp 193 

looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and con- 
tinueth therein, . . . this man shall be 
blessed in his deed." 

What does the Bible teach? Not scientific 
truth, not philosophic speculation, nor poetic 
fancy; and yet it is the basis of all these, and 
their real source and their highest inspiration. 
The greatest dramatists, poets, authors, phi- 
losophers, and legislators acknowledge it as 
the source where they gathered their facts, kin- 
dled their fancy, formulated their theories, and 
composed their laws. They have gone up to 
its exalted heights, where the air was pure. 
They have drunk in its sweet melodies, and been 
inspired by its holy thoughts. They have 
plucked its flowers, breathed its fragrance, and 
admired its beauty. Its deep, fundamental prin- 
ciples are at the center of all society; they are 
the very core of the social fabric, and the laws 
of the kingdom it describes compass all the cir- 
cumstances of life. The beautiful simplicity of 
its sayings, while they run counter to all human 
foibles and fancies, and thus make them unique, 
touch all with admiration. Its deep undercur- 
rents of power reach all the sources of life, and 
13 



194 Character Photography 

draw all men unto it. It comes into our lives 
because it possesses the power which reduces 
the most complex idea into its elements, which 
traces causes to their first principles, and by the 
power of generalization and combination unites 
the whole into one harmonious system. It ex- 
plains the principles of life and living, and makes 
the world around us real. It raises the astron- 
omer from being a mere star-gazer to the high 
intellectual eminence of a Newton or a Laplace. 
Under its inspiration they are changed from 
being mere observers of isolated facts into orig- 
inators of a noble science or a system of the uni- 
verse, like a Galileo or a Bacon. Under its 
light, cycles and centuries, arithmetic and ge- 
ometry, are no longer mere figures, but systems 
and demonstrations of a positive creation and 
of a mighty universe. Here we see its value as 
a guide. The agnostic goes over the realms of 
space, but comes back without a God. He looks 
up into the starry heavens, but sees no Divine 
Hand. He climbs the mountain-peaks, but does 
not see Infinity. But the Christian, with this 
torch in hand, ascends all these heights, and 
they glow with a Divine radiance. It illuminates 



The Developing Lamp 195 

the world. Doubt is a poor substitute for it. 
It does not help us sail distant seas. It does 
not keep us out of the rapids. It overcasts the 
sky. It makes an iron pillow for the head. It 
makes the light darkness. Cast away doubt. 
William Dean Howells says: 

"If I lay waste and wither up with doubt 

The blessed fields of heaven where once my faith 
Possessed itself serenely safe from death; 
If I deny the things past finding out; 

Or if I orphan my own soul of One 
That seemed a Father, and make void the place 
Within me where He dwelt in power and grace, 
What do I gain, that am myself undone?" 

United States Minister Conger is quoted as 
saying that, during the siege of Peking, the only 
man who utterly broke down and helplessly de- 
spaired was the French minister, who was an 
avowed and boastful Atheist. All the others 
were believers in God, and they were sustained 
and felt that somehow deliverance would come. 
So while many other theories are advanced, and 
misleading lights flash about us, we will reject 
them all. 

"Should all the forms that men devise 
Assail his faith with treacherous art, 
He '11 call them vanities and lies, 
And bind the Bible to his heart." 



196 Character Photography 

We ought to be students of God's truth. The 
scholar takes his lamp and goes into the quiet 
place. The artist lets the light fall aslant upon 
the model, so as to have the best effects and 
reveal most perfectly the features. The photog- 
rapher takes the "candle lamp" and goes into 
the dark room to produce the negative. Thus, 
with Bible in hand, we should go into the secret 
place, and, alone with its light, get positive re- 
sults. Get at the records, put some finger-marks 
upon them, interline your experiences, group its 
promises, memorize its precepts, get a better 
grip on its truths, and give it a larger place in 
the life. Let it light your souls and mark them 
with heavenly light, and reveal their secrets and 
feelings. 

"Christ, whose glory fills the skies, 
Christ, the true and only light, 

Sun of righteousness, arise, 
Triumph o'er the shades of night; 

Dayspring from on high, be near; 

Daystar in my heart, appear." 

What marvels have been wrought under its 
development ! Under its steady blaze the image 
of the Divine has been brought out in lives ob- 
scure and comparatively unknown. Lives black- 



The Developing Lamp 197 

ened and scarred by sin have been purified and 
ennobled by its power. What a mighty factor it 
has been in the emancipation of the world! It 
has touched nations into new life. Kings and 
queens have acknowledged it as the source of 
their greatness. Its diffusive rays have spread 
civilization and commerce around the globe. 
Thoughts and motives have been quickened, and 
intellectual life has been aroused, which would 
otherwise have lain dormant. The present ad- 
vancement in art and science is the resultant of 
its inspiration. Its heroism and devotion have 
produced the scenes which, painted, fill the gal- 
leries of the world. Its Madonna and Child have 
been chiseled in marble in every age and clime. 
Poetry and literature are full of its teachings, and 
great volumes and mighty folios have been writ- 
ten to explain it, while whole libraries are de- 
voted to its doctrines. 

"Hail, sacred truth! whose piercing rays 
Dispel the shades of night; 
Diffusing o'er a ruined world 
The healing beams of light." 

Its translation by Wyclif awoke all Europe 
from its lethargy, revived the spirit of learning, 



198 Character Photography 

and broke the bondage of ignorance and super- 
stition. It has dissolved the worse than iron 
bands that bound the human intellect. By repre- 
senting men as children of the same Father, 
possessors of the same faculties, purchased by 
the same redemption, and heirs of the same 
immortality, it proclaims the manumission of the 
race, and says to every human being, "Be free." 
It stirred the spirit of Luther, and thus gave birth 
to the Reformation. A false system had cor- 
rupted and degraded Christianity. Its features 
had been concealed and caricatured until they 
were marred and distorted, and were a wretched 
burlesque. The Church was under a tyranny. 
Its servants had become mountebanks, dealers 
in relics, sanctioning gross impostures and the 
iniquitous practice of indulgences. The Word of 
God was hidden, and its pages unknown to the 
people. In the cloister at Erfurt was a student. 
He beheld and shrank from the profligacies of 
the monks. He witnessed the priestly despot- 
ism, sacerdotal uncleanness, and monkish frauds. 
Amid its walls he heard the echoes of long- 
stifled truth. His great heart beat against the 
restraint of confinement, like a captive bird 



The Developing Lamp 199 

against the wires of its cage. He was not con- 
tented to be shut up in a monastery. He found 
a book in the library. It was the Bible. It was 
a herald of light. It opened a new world, a world 
of spiritual truth. The scales fell from his eyes. 
The manacles that bound his heart were broken. 
"The just shall live by faith" was the germ that 
emancipated his life and supplied him with a 
fulcrum with which he ultimately shook the 
papacy to its center. In an old wooden chapel, 
from a pulpit made of planks three feet high, the 
first sermon of the Reformation was preached. 
It was a storm-burst of cyclonic power. It made 
an era, marked a cycle. This trumpet-tongued 
hero-priest spoke the knell of papal supremacy 
and priestly craft. It aroused the bitterest oppo- 
sition. Bulls were fulminated against him, and 
anathemas fell upon his head; but he quailed not, 
and did not falter. When summoned to the 
Diet, and urged not to go, he replied, "To 
Worms I will go if there are as many devils there 
as there are tiles on the houses." When ar- 
raigned for his utterances, he calmly said, "I will 
not recant." This Augustinian monk, whose 
moral grandeur dims the luster and diminishes 



200 Character Photography 

the greatness of the world's heroes and kings, 
was the product of the Bible and the Reforma- 
tion, by which came the enfranchisement of hu- 
man thought and conscience, and the breaking 
of the bonds of ecclesiastical tyranny and domin- 
ion was its fruit. What heroic, self-sacrificing 
characters it has developed ! Its witnesses have 
been ready in all ages to seal their testimony with 
their blood. Its martyrs knew how to brave 
death and all the horrors of persecution. They 
bore the tortures of the thumbscrews without a 
murmur, laid their heads upon the block joyfully, 
and trod the scaffold with kingly step. How 
marvelously it has been preserved ! Iconoclastic 
penknives, like the king of old, have sought to 
cut out its pages by piecemeal, and thus destroy 
the blending of colors in this beautiful mosaic, 
but all in vain. Not a book or page of its record 
but has undergone the most critical and search- 
ing investigation. By its friends it has been 
carefully compiled and closely scrutinized to pre- 
vent inaccuracies. By this process it has been 
kept pure and free from corruption. No new 
element could be introduced, as it has been jeal- 
ously watched and guarded. It has been conned 



The Developing Lamp 201 

and learned by the multitude. The love of the 
saints has kept it inviolate. Then, it has been 
tested in the crucible of persecution. It has liter- 
ally passed through the fire. It has endured 
ordeals such as no other book. Against it have 
been hurled the assaults of skepticism. Wit, 
satire, ridicule, blasphemy, and edicts have all 
united to overthrow it. But it has come forth 
like gold tried in the fire. Time tests all things. 
Much that is good fades out. But this Book 
never grows old. 

"Time writes no wrinkle on its brow." 

The fires of time have burned up many volumes 
of great erudition and choice literature. Many 
books do not live a generation. But not so with 
the imperishable Oracles of Divine truth. It is 
like a cube of granite. It stands forever. It is 
enduring and abiding. The Jew neglected it; 
but it endured until the Shekinah forsook the 
temple and Jerusalem was destroyed, and he 
hath no abiding city. The Greek derided it; but 
it has seen his philosophy become effete and the 
Acropolis in ruins. The Roman flung it to the 
flames; but it has conquered his eagle ensigns, 



202 Character Photography 

and is more enduring than the seven hills. It is 
an inexhaustible light Other lights grow dim, 
but it increases in splendor. What treasures, 
what depths in the Bible! Who can fathom it? 
Each time we dig we find new truths. Each 
page opens new beauties. It is a fount that never 
runs dry. a perennial spring, an artesian well. 
It throws a friendly ray on even* possible path- 
way of man. Its beams will be widely dissemi- 
nated, and will shine on until all the world shall 
rejoice in its light. It is the Book God gives me 
to hold before my feet as I walk life's highway. 

'"The steps of faith fall on the seeming air, 
They find the Rock beneath." 

It illuminates the valley of the shadow of death, 
and flings its beams of splendor to the golden 
gates of the Celestial City. It betokens the com- 
ing day. Out into the world's bleakest night 
it throws a lighted torch. It is the angel of the 
morning, the white-winged evangel of Hope. It 
rolls away the stone from the sepulcher. lifts the 
curtain that hides immortality, and Christ, in his 
resurrection power, stands before us. It guides 
to another life. 



Chapter XIII 
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 



"For my heart was hot and restless, 
And my life was full of care, 
And the burden laid upon me 

Seemed greater than I could bear/' 

'Sorrows humanize our race; 
Tears are the showers that fertilize this world." 



4 * T)AINT me a picture without shadows," 
-*■ said some one to an artist. "If I did, 
there would be no features," was the reply. As 
in the portrait there must be a proper blending 
of light and shade, so amid life's actualities, lights 
and shadows alternate; they both must go in to 
complete the picture. In the background of our 
joys lie our sorrows, to set them out in bold 
relief. Pain is mingled with pleasure, and "every 
rose has its thorn." 

"For care and trouble set our thought 
Even when our end 's attained, 
And all our plans may come to naught, 
When every nerve is strained." 

The skillful artist, in making a good portrait, 

finds it necessary to use the dark and bright 

colors alternately; so the Divine Artist dips his 

pencil by turns in Marahs and Elims, — Marahs 

first, in dark, black background; then Elims, to 

205 



206 Character Photography 

relieve the blackness, as with the colors of the 

rainbow. 

"Not through Glory's myrtle arches, 
Nor by grand triumphal marches, 
But by pathways sad and dreary, 
And with footsteps worn and weary." 

The way to a throne for Joseph was through 
prison, the way to a crown for Paul was an exe- 
cutioner's block, and the way to glory for Christ 
was Gethsemane and Calvary. The Master en- 
dured the agony of Gethsemane, and drank its 
cup of bitterness, and walked up to Calvary to 
have its nails pierce his hands. He was mocked, 
spit upon, crowned with thorns, and crucified 
between thieves. 

"The Lord of all above, beneath, 
Was bowed with sorrow unto death; 
The sunset in a fearful hour, 

The stars might well grow dim, 
When this mortality had power 

So to o'ershadow him, 
That he who. gave man breath might know 
The very depths of human woe. 
He proved them all, — the doubt, the strife, 

The faint, perplexing dread, 
The mists that hang o'er parting life, 

All gathered round his head; 
And the Deliverer knelt to pray, 
Yet passed it not, the cup away; 



Lights and Shadows 207 

It passed not, though the stormy wave 

Had sunk beneath his tread; 
It passed not, though to him the grave 

Had yielded up its dead. 
But there was sent him from on high, 
A gift of strength for man to die." 

Thus we must face life's conflicts and bear its 
burdens. How often the wind is contrary! It 
blows right in our teeth. We toil at the oars, 
while the gales of affliction and winds of adver- 
sity blow about us. 

"There can be no rainbow without a cloud 
and a storm." So out of the storm Christ comes, 
to still the waves and guide our boat to shore. 
Life is a weary land. It is full of heartaches, of 
pains and sorrows. There is a rush of tempta- 
tions, and the wind, cold and raw, bleak and 
drear, whistles about our path, and we shiver and 
shake. Our feet are weary with journeying, and 
our hands are tired with toiling. Tired, O so 
tired, footsore, and weary! "There is a gravel 
in almost every shoe." There are faces seamed 
with care, and burdened hearts for whom life's 
tasks seem too heavy, and shoulders that are 
bending under the weights put upon them. 

"There never was a life so pure and bright 
But had a care." 



208 Character Photography 

There are sick ones, tossed on beds of pain and 
anguish, who cry out, "I am weary with my 
groaning, and I water my couch with my tears." 
There are tear-stained cheeks, and bedimmed 
eyes weary with weeping, because hearthstones 
are desolate, loved ones are gone, and hopes are 
all buried beneath the sod. Coffins glide into 
our homes on the brightest days of all the year, 
and shadow them forever. Death breaks into 
the house, and takes the mother of the little babe, 
the young man in the pride of youth, or the 
young maiden in the bloom of womanhood. The 
goal is shrouded, and we are clothed in sack- 
cloth and ashes, and drink the cup of gall and 
bitterness. Then we see life's outcasts, the neg- 
lected ones, alone in the world, — "No man careth 
for my soul," — lonely and friendless and help- 
less, adrift, having made failures and mistakes, 
stranded and wrecked and scarred and mangled, 
crying out with pain, with broken constitutions 
and ruined characters. 

And then nature joins in the carnival of de- 
struction. Cities are devastated by conflagra- 
tion; cyclones plow a furrow of death through 
a crowded population ; a great ship goes down in 



Lights and Shadows 209 

midocean; the flood overwhelms a city, and 
thousands are drowned, — until we ask, "Is there 
a God? and if so, where is he?" He looks on 
with merciless repose, or so it seems to our 
blinded vision. He appears to hide himself in 
some cave of reserve, so absolutely still are his 
footsteps. We are bewildered among the cross 
lights of Providence, like a stranger in a railroad 
yard, surrounded by a hundred flashing lights, 
perplexed because he does not understand the 
signals. But whatever anomalies Providence may 
present, whatever seeming contradictions to our 
imperfect vision or uninformed understanding, 
we know that there is a great Being up above the 
sun and beyond the stars, the Infinite One, who 
is behind all power, and back of all causes, who 
sits alone on his throne, and he is our Father, 
and he loves us. 

President Lincoln telegraphed to Governor 
Yates when he was impatient and was pressing 
an unwise step upon him, "Stand still, Dick, and 
see the salvation of God." Life's mosaics fit into 
each other. They interlap and intertwine, and 
thus are unified and united, and blend and har- 
monize, and make a completed whole. There is 
14 



210 Character Photography 

a diversity of action and movement, yet all work- 
ing to the same end. Like the wheels of a clock, 
some go one way and some another; yet they 
tick out accurately the moments of time. You 
are sitting in the auditorium before the concert 
begins. On the stage are one hundred orchestral 
performers, and each has a separate and distinct 
instrument, and they are all tuning up. What a 
clatter, what a tumult, what a discord, and how 
tedious the waiting! But the hour comes, and 
the leader stands before them. Now all is si- 
lence. Then, with a wave of the hand, they 
begin, every instrument in tune, each separate 
instrument playing its distinct part, yet all har- 
monize. There is the sweetest melody mingling 
and commingling, blending and harmonizing all 
together, as they sweep onward in the magnifi- 
cent oratorio of "The Creation." You are en- 
tranced. All the air is resonant with melody, 
and it fills all the room. You see now the pur- 
pose of the tuning up. Thus sometimes the 
heartstrings and tones of life are touched by 
fingers that seem rude, and the notes are harsh 
and discordant. But under the wand of the 
Master Musician, all will be blended into the 
sweetest melody. 



Lights and Shadows 211 

A traveler tells of the baptistery of the cathe- 
dral at Pisa. It has a wonderful dome, spacious, 
symmetrical, and composed of the choicest 
marble. It is a delight to look at its beauties. 
As he viewed it one April day, suddenly the air 
became instinct with melody. The great dome 
seemed full of harmony, the waves of music 
vibrated to and fro, beating against the walls, 
swelling into full chords like the roll of a grand 
organ, and then dying away into soft, long- 
drawn, far-receding echoes, melting in the dis- 
tance into silence. What caused it? The guide 
who had lingered behind had softly murmured a 
chord. The dome had caught it, and there was 
nothing but symphony there. No discord can 
reach it. Every noise of stamping feet, the 
slamming of seats, and the murmur of the busy 
crowd, is caught, softened, harmonized, and 
echoed back as sweet music. So life has its dome 
of Providence. In it, all sickness and affliction, 
grief and loss, are harmonized, softened, blended 
into harmony, and sent back to us, echoing like 
the sweetest music of heaven. 

They tell in mythology of Nemesis, the god- 
dess of vengeance; lame, but of colossal stature. 
With her huge left hand she grasps her victim, 



212 Character Photography 

while with the other she holds aloft the un- 
sheathed sword to destroy. Nemesis ! How ter- 
ribly true in life! "Be sure your sin will find 
you out." 

But there is another side. If we have brought 
all our mistakes and follies, all our sins and 
wrongs, to Christ for pardon and forgiveness, 
we need not fear a revenging fate. "There is 
therefore now no condemnation to them who 
are in Christ Jesus." To such there is no 
Nemesis. 

We see a traveler at the base of some moun- 
tain-peak. Its heights seem so inaccessible, so 
rugged and steep. A guide-board says, "This 
way to the summit." He follows the path, but 
how strange it goes! For a little while it goes 
upward, then turns off in another direction. 
What a zigzag way it is ! But he follows it on- 
ward, and still upward, until he reaches the sum- 
mit at last. Then from the heights he looks 
down upon the toilsome way, and is able to see 
all the difficulties it overcame by its circuitous 
route. Thus we are now climbing up life's toil- 
some way, and treading its winding path. But 
some day from the summit, amid the glories of 



Lights and Shadows 213 

immortality, we shall look back over the vicis- 
situdes of life, and see the upward way that led 
us safely home. How the light blends with the 
shadows! It is a bright, summer day, but a 
stormcloud gathers, and black clouds rise above 
the horizon. We see the lightning flash, we hear 
the low muttering of the distant thunder. Now 
the rain pours in a torrent, and the world is 
flooded. But the clouds lift, the sun is shining 
again, the grass grows, and the flowers spring. 
Such is our life. Winter comes with its cold, 
chilly blast, its piercing winds, its blizzards, and 
its snowdrifts hiding all the face of nature, and 
the ice-king holds high carnival. But spring- 
time rains melt the snow and ice, and the bright 
sunshine warms the earth again, and summer 
comes with its fruitage. It is so like life's ex- 
periences that we sing: 

"Light after darkness, 
Sun after rain; 
Sight after mystery, 
Peace after pain." 

We are liable to take shortsighted, or one- 
sided views of life. The Washington Monu- 
ment, although much higher, does not give as 



214 Character Photography 

good a view of the city of Washington as the 
dome of the Capitol. The reason is that it is at 
one side, while the Capitol is in the center. 
From the Capitol all the streets and avenues 
radiate, and from its dome you can understand 
the plan of the city. So we sometimes view life's 
problems sidewise, and thus the shadows come 
out; but from the radiating center we can see 
the plan complete. Hope and cheerfulness are 
helpful. Noble courage dispels the gloomy feel- 
ing, and casts out the desponding spirit. 

"I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air, 
I only know I can not drift 
Beyond his love and care." 

Some of the very best pictures are made by 
printing in the shade. When they have what is 
called a "weak" negative, and wish to bring out 
all its good points at their best, photographers 
always print the picture where the sunshine does 
not fall directly upon the negative, or else place 
an artificial shade between the sun and negative, 
to temper the effect of the heat from the rays. 
It requires a much longer period to make the 
print in the shade than it does to make one in 



Lights and Shadows 215 

the sunshine; but the difference in the beauty 
and quality of such a picture amply repays for 
the time of waiting. When the sunlight is too 
strong on a negative, in printing, the picture will 
often be blistered and blurred, and the entire 
work be unsatisfactory; for whenever there is a 
blemish on the negative, it will show in the print. 
So we are called to sit in the shadow because the 
light might blind us. The scorching rays of 
prosperity would wither and blight us. Then in 
the shadowy places we patiently wait the slower 
development, which, when finished, will give a 
clear and true picture of a well-spent life. We 
are what we are and where we are in God's 
providential arrangement, and his hand holds 
and his eye watches. 

"Amid the trials which I meet, 
Amid the thorns that press my feet, 
One thought remains supremely sweet, 
Thou thinkest, Lord, of me." 

We should not chafe under trials. Rather be 
like an ^Eolian harp. The breath of the tempest 
only makes it give forth sweetest music, and the 
more the tumult of the storm, the louder its notes 
of music. The oak bows itself to the storm and 



216 Character Photography 

sinks its roots deeper in the earth. It could have 
no ruggedness without it. The natives of sum- 
mer climes are indolent and lack ambition. A 
dove wished there was no wind, as it ruffled her 
feathers, but if her wish had been granted she 
could not fly. So it is better to face the storm. 
We may get good out of these difficulties. Like 
honey out of the rock, the hardest experiences 
produce the sweetest results, and the flinty rock 
of trial is a regular honeycomb. The rough 
places are made memorial stones, the stony pil- 
low is changed to a pillar, a milestone to indicate 
progress. 

"When the shore is won at last, 
Who will count the billows past?" 

The South Cape of Africa was formerly 
known as the Cape of Tempests. But a Portu- 
guese sailor, having discovered a safe passage 
around it, gave it a new name. Since then it has 
been called "The Cape of Good Hope. ,, 

A genuine faith lifts above the bitterness of 
grief, and in the darkest hour it is unspeakably 
consoling. When Tennyson lost by death his 
dear friend Hallam, he did not simply sit down 



Lights and Shadows 217 

and weep. He took up his harp, and, looking 
towards the immortal realm, he gave to the 
world the richest, sweetest music to heal its sor- 
row and point to a glad immortality. So he says : 

"I hope to see my Pilot face to face, 
When I have crossed the bar." 



Chapter XIV 
BLUE PRINTS 



"God must like common people, or he would not have 
made so many." 

"When much is given, there much shall be required; 
When little, less." 

"The trivial round, the common task." 



T TOW much of pathos there is in life, a 
■*• -*- wearied struggle against adverse circum- 
stances, the rising of aspirations that have never 
been gratified, the battling against environments 
that constantly chafe the soul ! You wanted an 
education, but the family purse was empty, and 
you must needs go out to daily toil, to labor for 
the meat that perisheth, and to help swell the 
exchequer. You wanted to travel and see for- 
eign lands, and explore historic spots; but you 
have never gotten away from home, and have 
seen nothing of this world but the blue sky above 
you and the little circle of country about your 
native heath. Thus there are lives hedged in 
by the circumstances of toil. There are hearts 
that would have beaten responsively to the 
world's sweetest music, who have had to sing 
one little sonnet, and make all the music them- 
selves that has ever reached their ears — lives 
that are simply blue prints. But let us look at 
this matter a little. The blue print is useful, 



221 



222 Character Photography 

after all. It has a large place in life. Some one 
says that the Divine order is 

"First the true, and then the beautiful; 
Not first the beautiful, and then the true." 

Over in Scotland, when they widened the 
North Bridge of Edinburgh, they discovered a 
strange marvel. Down in one of the vaults they 
found a most wonderful cave of snow-white 
stalactites. The secret of it was this. The rain 
percolating through the roof had carried with 
it the lime in the cement, and by a slow, silent 
process, it transformed the gloomy vault into a 
fairy scene; and there it was, down under the 
common roadway, a thing of beauty far down 
under the tread of busy feet. So there are lives 
far from the busy scenes of trade following the 
treadmill of an accustomed round of duties and 
patiently discharging the common tasks that are 
being beautified and ennobled by the process. 
How much there is of the commonplace and 
homespun! Life is full of unassuming duties. 

"Each morning sees some task begun, 
Each evening sees it close; 
Something attempted, something done, 
Has earned a night's repose." 



Blue Prints 223 

The chalk cliffs that rear their towering heads 
thousands of feet above the dashing waves of 
the billowy sea are made up of the minute skele- 
tons of microscopic animalculae. So likewise 
many lives are made up of minor incidents, trivial 
duties, and small tasks. Homespun — that is, the 
coarse fiber of the rude, crude home manufac- 
tory — homespun ways, homespun duties, home- 
spun religion, are valuable because they wear 
well, stand the brunt, and are very useful. They 
have discovered a process by which they can 
manufacture artificial fuel. It is to be made 
from rubbish and refuse. They will use corn- 
stalks, weeds, grass, hay, leaves, and other herb- 
age and vegetable substances, together with 
asphaltum oil and other liquids; and out of this 
composite mass they are to make a fuel to gen- 
erate heat, and supply the forces that will move 
and bless the world. So the great Alchemist 
takes our lives, made up of drudgery and toil, of 
briers and thorns, of cares and sorrows, of tu- 
mults and fears, of trivial commonplaces, and 
he makes them shine and blaze with power 
and influence. With God they cease to be 
common. 



224 Character Photography 

"All may of Thee partake; 

Nothing can be mean 
Which with his tincture, for thy sake, 

Will not grow bright and clean. 
A servant with this clause 

Makes drudgery divine; 
Who sweeps a room as for thy laws, 

Makes that and th' action fine." 

Faithful in the least is God's order. The 
most serviceable thing, after all, and about which 
we should concern ourselves the most, is just 
every-day living, the common duty of every 
hour. The round of service in this lowly, un- 
eventful life of ours for every day is going- to 
make the warp and woof of eternity. Sometimes 
we clamor like the child who was repeating the 
Lord's Prayer, clause by clause, after her mother, 
and when the mother said, "Give us this day our 
daily bread," the child cried, "No, no; me want 
cake." So we are not always willing to take 
the manna our Heavenly Father provides, but 
long for the fleshpots of Egypt. We should re- 
member that the way up is usually to go down in 
gentleness and humility. 

"Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop 
Than when we soar." 



Blue Prints 225 

A touching story is told of a blind prince 
who heard of a rare flower that restored sight to 
the blind. He said to his slave, "Get it for me, 
and I will give you half of my treasures, and you 
shall marry my daughter." So he went out and 
ranged over the hills until he had gathered a 
sack full of flowers. The prince took them one 
by one, and passed them over his eyes, but it 
was no good. Then by merest accident he 
touched to his eyes a sandal the slave had worn 
in his search, and at once his sight was restored. 
The flower he had sought had been trampled 
under his feet. Thus we range the fields of liter- 
ature and poetry, we pluck the bright flowers of 
art and science, we hold the treasures of wealth, 
of money and gold, yet withal we do not find 
healing or rest or satisfaction. But if we stoop to 
some lowly service, lo, it comes! The greatest 
blessings of our lives may be in the things we 
are trampling under our feet. 

"The roots of fairest bloom lie sometimes hidden 
The deepest underneath the soil; the stones 
Of purest crystal are from gloomiest mines; 
The tenderest pearls are won from roughest seas; 
And stars of colors dipped in iris vats 
Beam from unfathomable distances, 
Ere they disclose their radiance." 
15 



226 Character Photography 

Underneath the most threadbare coat there 
may be a generous heart, and although the lan- 
guage may be rude, yet it may be the expression 
of a thought which touches hidden springs of 
feeling and awakens kindred emotions in the 
minds of others. Gales may lash the ocean into 
foam and dash the wild waves high; but the 
strength of the ocean is in the undercurrents, 
deep and still. The storm stirs only the surface. 
It does not touch the depths. 

"Below the surface stream, shallow and light, 
Of what we say we feel — below the stream 
Of what we think we feel — there flows 
With noiseless current strong, obscure, and deep, 
The central stream of what we feel indeed." 

There are submerged lives with strong under- 
curents of being hidden beneath the surface, and, 
after all, it is this quiet influence that is moving 
the world of thought. Much that is gorgeous 
and grand and elegant is only ephemeral. It 
fades out, but the real abides. Truth makes 
silent progress, like the water that trickles be- 
hind the rocks and loosens them, so that some 
day there is a mountain slide, and a single hour 
lays bare the work of years. 

How much of life's work has been done under 
disadvantages by men and women who were 



Blue Prints 227 

hampered in the struggle ! Sometimes the high- 
est inspiration is that of necessity, "the must 
power." The very desperateness of our con- 
dition is the best spur to heroic endeavor. The 
pressure of circumstances is so emergent and 
critical that surpassing effort must be made. An 
American soldier in the Philippines had cut his 
way out of a squad of bolomen who had taken 
him prisoner. His captain asked him "how he 
could possibly do it." He replied, "I do n't 
know, sir, except I just had to." And thus the 
strenuous effort achieves pre-eminent success. 
Physical infirmities and deformities have been 
overcome. The great Apostle to the Gentiles 
had a thorn in the flesh. Byron was clubfooted. 
Samuel Johnson was disfigured, and Walter 
Scott was a pining child. Isaac Newton might 
have been put in a quart-pot when born. Lord 
Nelson, Sir Christopher Wren, and Isaac Watts 
were not physically strong. The latter was a 
mere pigmy. One day he overheard some peo- 
ple talking about him and sneering at his size, 
and he composed in verse an answer to them : 

"Were I so tall to reach the pole 
Or grasp the ocean with a span, 
I must be measured by my soul: 
The mind 's the stature of the man." 



228 Character Photography 

Alexander Stephens, "The Little Giant," was 
not physically large. One day he was sitting 
on the platform near his opponent, with whom 
he was to debate. His personal appearance ex- 
cited the disgust of the other, who was of large 
physical proportions, and he tauntingly said, 
"Why, I could swallow you." Without hesita- 
tion Stephens facetiously replied, "If you did, 
you would have more brains in your stomach 
than in your head." Neither does success lie 
"in titles nor in rank." "Vulgar mediocrity and 
churl's blood" are no bar. Frequently the cast- 
off cognomen of some dead ancestor and historic 
celebrity is only a ghostly index-finger pointing 
to the past. There are pathways to success along 
which the barefoot boy may tread. 

"Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay. 
Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, — 
A breath can make them as a breath has made, — 
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, 
When once destroyed, can never be supplied." 

The common life has been beautified in Mil- 
let's "The Angelus," so full of sentiment, bring- 
ing out the beauty of landscape and the stillness 
and sacredness of thought in the figures repre- 



Blue Prints 229 

sented. The painter was himself by birth a 
peasant, and here he teaches the deep lessons of 
this simple life. "Not by might, nor by power, 
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." 
When the Almighty would teach the Prophet 
Elijah this great lesson, he caused a great and 
strong wind that rent the mountains and brake 
in pieces the rocks. But the Lord was not in 
the wind. Then came the earthquake, with its 
mighty convulsions, and after that the fire. But 
he was in neither of them. Then came the still 
small voice. Thus he speaks in the quiet influ- 
ences of to-day. What great results have been 
accomplished by the feeblest instruments and by 
inconsiderable means, by what we are inclined 
to call trifles, although it has been truthfully said, 
"There are no trifles in the moral universe of 
God." Divine revelation lays great stress on 
little things. More value is given to quality than 
to quantity. The question is not "How much?" 
but "How?" On its pages the lives of two lowly 
shepherd boys are given in much detail, until one 
becomes the Lord of Egypt, and the other the 
Singing King of Israel. The trivial events of 
their lives are magnified, for upon them hinges 



230 Character Photography 

destiny. Upon the flight of a stone from a sling, 
or the nodding sheaves in a dream, turn the after 
events of their lives. So also the little maid is 
the heroine of a general's restoration from lep- 
rosy, and a little lad the means of a great multi- 
tude being fed. The widow's two mites are 
worthy of commendation by the Master, and the 
breaking of an alabaster box of ointment is a 
fitting memorial to be spoken of wherever the 
gospel is preached. Wordsworth says: 

"Small service is true service while it lasts. 

Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one; 
The daisy, by the shadow that it casts, 

Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun." 

Great events have resulted from little causes. 
Empty pitchers, and lamps within them, put the 
Midianite army to flight, and rams'-horns bat- 
tered down the walls of Jericho. The cackling 
of geese is said to have changed the fate of an 
ancient city. We have read somewhere of a 
battle against cannibals gained by the use of 
tacks. They had taken possession of a whaling 
vessel, and bound the man who was left in care 
of it. The crew, on returning, saw the situation, 
and scattered upon the deck of the vessel a lot 



Blue Prints 231 

of tacks, which penetrated the bare feet of the 

savages and sent them howling into the sea. 

They were ready to meet lance and sword, but 

they could not overcome the tacks on the floor. 

"A pebble in a brooklet scant 
Has turned the course of many a river." 

We often shrink from the ordinary humble 
duties of life, and we say, "Give me something 
great." Pride rebels, and we say, "Why make 
me sweep and dust?" Yet out of these come 
the larger duties, and from these spring the fin- 
ished results. The beautiful butterfly is devel- 
oped from the chrysalis of the worm that crawls. 
A rude cradle often rocks a noble and lordly life. 
It needs, like the diamond, only to be smoothed 
and polished, to gleam and glow with a marvel- 
ous beauty. We think of the lowly life of the 
Nazarene, of the life of retirement at Nazareth. 
Nazareth lay among the hills of Judea. It was 
reached by a narrow, steep, and rough mountain 
pathway, over which the villagers brought their 
harvests from the plains below. Their streets 
were narrow and dirty, their people were rude 
and coarse, and their morality doubtful. Yet 
there Christ lived and toiled for thirty years. He 



232 Character Photography 

climbed its mountain-path, and drank at its 
springs and fountains. There, as a boy, he 
played and wandered about. He was a peasant's 
son. His parents were plain, ordinary, humble 
Jewish folks, without either rank or wealth. 
Joseph was a Galilean artisan, and he was "the 
carpenter's son." He labored for his daily bread 
at a work-bench, and thus sanctified toil, and 
made it ever blessed. He was trained in this 
lowly life for his great responsibilities, that he 
might be an example to others. 

"What is the meaning of my daily life, 
Its drudgery, its endless, petty strife? 
O, deadly certainty of common things! 
O, hours with heavy, lagging wings! 

Do thou, O Carpenter of Galilee, 
Teach me thy secret; let me learn of thee; 
Send visions of those days when thou didst share 
The lot of working man, his trials bear. 

Help me to feel that thou dost work with me 
In earthly tasks, in heavenly I with thee; 
And yet, dear Lord, with thee is always heaven, — 
I see my common lot hath blessed leaven." 



Chapter XV 
DEFECTIVE NEGATIVES 



Men say that life' s high hope is vain ; 

That one force holds the heart, — the hope of gain. 

"And fell among thieves." 



"\ X 7" HAT have we here? Ah, some choice 
* * views, some bits of scenery, and a fa- 
miliar face. But, alas ! the pictures are blurred. 
There is a defect in the negative, the visage 
is marred, and the beauty is spoiled. The 
regrets are many, and tears may fall, but 
they do not wash it out. The explanation may 
be at hand, the cause may be discovered, 
but the defect remains. Defective negatives. 
We are about to write some pages for this book 
that we wish we might leave out, but it can not 
be if it is to be a true record of life's photographs. 
It is said in a French picture-gallery there are 
no pictures of battle-scenes, but those of French 
victories. But this is not true to history. Where 
are Sedan, Waterloo, and Metz? There are 
spots on the sun, and the chemical spectrum re- 
veals them, and the telescope magnifies them, 
until they stand out prominently. Life's deeds 
and records are blotted. These pictures must 
go in. The pages of history, the rise and fall of 
235 



236 Character Photography 

nations, the defacement of moral character, the 
deterioration of the intellect, and the dethrone- 
ment of the principles of right and justice, all 
show how man is prone to reject the watchwords 
of truth and honesty, and thus become robbed 
of the true elements of manhood. 

Nations and empires, thrones and dynasties, 
which have towered in greatness, have fallen a 
prey to their own pernicious influences, bowed 
their proud heads in the dust, and gone down 
with the wrecks of time. Greece, the glory of 
ancient literature, and the pride of architecture, 
with her deathless triumphs of genius, yielded 
to the vices and immoralities of her age. Rome, 
the beauty of the seven hills, the proud mistress 
of the world, whose command nations obeyed 
and at whose mandate empires trembled, fell, 
not in a day, but nevertheless did fall, by the cor- 
rupting influences of her licentiousness and sen- 
suality. Men mighty in erudition and learning, 
high in the council chambers of State, men who 
graced the halls of learning and philosophy, or 
adorned the pulpit and the bar, or sat in editorial 
chairs, have fallen low, become depraved, vile, 
and corrupt, loathsome as unclean vultures, and 



Defective Negatives 237 

been smitten like blinded Samsons. The roads 
to Jericho are crowded, and men are still falling 
among thieves. The worst of it is, that the fate 
of one does not seem to deter the others. They 
crowd right over each other in their eager haste, 
stumbling right into the mouth of the pit over 
the prostrate form of a brother, running, like the 
swine into whom the devils entered, violently 
down a steep place to speedy destruction, un- 
heeding the sign of danger, stopping their ears 
to all calls of warning, closing their eyes to the 
beckoning signs of friendly interposition. They 
are fascinated and lured astray. Men are taking 
chances all the time. In the river just above the 
falls of Niagara, on a rock, is a large sign, adver- 
tising a local firm. Inquiring of the guard how 
it came to be placed there, he said one winter 
there was an ice-gorge, and the firm gave a man 
a dollar to put it up. It was a warm day, and 
there was every sign of the ice breaking up, and 
floating out over the precipice. He was warned 
not to undertake it, but he ventured. Scarcely 
had he returned to shore again when the great 
mass cracked and crumbled, and went crashing 
over the falls to the depths below. Thus men 



238 Character Photography 

are taking chances in life, running desperate 
risks. 

Captain Webb, who swam the Whirlpool 
Rapids, said, "I know I take a great risk, but I 
will come out all right;" and he took the chance 
once too often. You can not play with the fire, 
and not be burned. The thirst for riches and the 
greed for gain often override all moral consider- 
ations. The unhallowed lust for wealth stifles 
convictions of right. Men throw prudence to the 
winds, run risks, and seek, by adroit movements 
and brazen effrontery, to win success. They are 
speculating in futures. They sell their morality 
for pelf, their birthright for pottage, and barter 
their immortal destiny for the things of time. 
Many seek popularity at the expense of principle, 
and choose policy rather than right. Wolsey, 
fallen, said, "If I had served my God as faithfully 
as I have served my king, he would not have left 
me in my old age." 

"Who put in popularity their trust, 
But write in water and but limn the dust." 

Such mercenary methods bias the mind and de- 
prave the heart. They are pernicious in their 



Defective Negatives 239 

influence, ruining in their effects. The result is 
a dethronement of all that is rational, and a per- 
version of all that is moral. Shun such influ- 
ences as you would the miasma whose breath 
is poison, and the viper whose sting is death. 
Such chicanery will blunt the sensibilities, render 
obtuse the power of discriminating between right 
and wrong, and end in poignant remorse. Lis- 
ten to none but the supreme oracle, Conscience. 

"It 's slightest touches instant pause, 
Debar all side pretenses, 
And resolutely keep its laws, 
Uncaring consequences." 

So many profess to believe that the avenues to 
recognition and preferment are closed, barred 
with gates whose locks respond only to golden 
keys. We see everywhere Croesuses with shriv- 
eled souls, but corpulent purses. A miser was 
tottering along the streets of New York at eighty 
years of age. A friend asked, "How are you?" 
And he replied, "I am better, stocks are up." 
An Apache Indian was asked to attend the daily 
classes. He replied, "Me go for two dollars an 
hour." The one is the prototype of the other. 
Thus thousands are making mere worldly pros- 



240 Character Photography 

perity their aspiration of life, and so are prone 
to secure wealth without conscience. To all such 
Mr. Astor's dying statement, written with his 
own hand, ought to come with pungent em- 
phasis: "My life has been a failure." Against 
such a course God thunders his severest anath- 
emas, and secular history, as well as sacred, 
writes its doom. Gehazi, for insatiable greed, 
secured incurable leprosy, and Judas a rope and 
everlasting infamy. What blunders and mis- 
takes men have made ! One of the most frightful 
records of history is the bloody pages of the 
French Revolution. Pretending to be a struggle 
for freedom, it made shipwreck of it. Its pro- 
moters became abettors of despotism, denying 
to others the liberty they claimed for themselves. 
Passions, as if ignited from some spark below, 
blazed out through Paris as through the orifice 
of a volcano, and poured their scorching hot lava 
over all that was beautiful and bright. Political 
liberty was trampled in the dust, and gave place 
to the most absolute despotism. Christianity 
was trampled down amid the triumphant orgies 
of a foul-mouthed atheism. Men apostatized 
from God, became the victims of every false hal- 



Defective Negatives 241 

lucination, and were given over to ignorance and 
superstition. 

"They made themselves a fearful monument! 

The wrecks of old opinions, things which grew 
Breathed from the breath of time; the veil they rent! 
And what behind this lay all earth shall view; 
But good with ill they also overthrew, 
Leaving but ruins." 

The Bible reveals the revelry of Belshazzar, 
which led to his overthrow, and the poet has also 
described it : 

"A thousand dark nobles all bend at his board; 
Fruits glisten, flowers blossom, meats steam, and a flood 
Of the wine that man loveth runs redder than blood; 
Wild dancers are there and a riot of mirth, 
And the beauty that maddens the passions of earth; 
And the crowd all shout, while the vast roofs ring, 
All praise to Belshazzar, Belshazzar, the king!" 

Ah! we can find just such pictures every- 
where, — lives wrecked and ruined, stained repu- 
tations, bloated faces, weakened wills, dazed 
minds, and crushed hearts. If you take from the 
pavement enough dust to cover the point of a 
penknife, and insert it into the arm of a child, in 
a week it will be dead. So some sip at pleasure's 

cup, ever so little, only to introduce the fatal 
16 



242 Character Photography 

element, that will never cease its work until the 
moral nature is destroyed. There are social 
whirlpools and Niagaras; social customs, that 
mark the forehead with the hard hoof of de- 
bauchery; social evils, that result in perverted 
lives, and wanton lust, and the acceptance of an 
unhallowed love. Here is the young maiden, 
coy and winsome, who has heard the voice of 
love, and she cons its notes, but hides her secret, 
and then her base betrayer decoys her into the 
haunts of evil and the coarse debauch, where 
vows are broken, her golden locks of purity are 
clipped, and she is as helpless as a babe in the 
hands of the enemies of her soul. The charge on 
sin's turnpike is a terrible toll. Jonah paid the 
fare to Tarshish, but it cost him more to get 
back. In some of our modern expositions, where 
strange sights and scenes are on exhibition on 
the Midways, it is a common method of the 
spoilers persuasively to announce, "It is free in 
the lobby." And so on life's highways the first 
steps of vice and wrong are easily taken; but O, 
the awful cost to purity and honor before the 
steps can be retraced! "Be sure your sin will 
find you out." Its defect shows on the negative. 



Defective Negatives 243 

Secret sins are like the blood-stains on Lady 
Macbeth's hands : they will not wash out. Like 
the fabled shirt of Nessus, the poisoned garment 
ate away the muscles of the victim in his vain 
attempt to rid himself of it. So sin scourges 
those under its lash. It burns like a hot sirocco, 
it stings like an adder, it poisons like an asp. It 
rushes its victim towards the precipice of de- 
struction and the thundering Niagara of his 
doom, an immortality of pain and tears and de- 
spair. What an awful cost ! — burning tears, hot 
and bitter, harrowing fears, festering griefs, cor- 
roding cares, shooting pains, and piercing re- 
morse. Broken hearts, ghastly memories, grave- 
yards of buried hopes, wasted energies, physical 
disabilities, fleet-footed coursers hurry the vic- 
tim down the declivity of excess to a premature 
grave and eternal loss. The sighs and moans of 
the lazar-house, reeking with putrefaction and 
death, the shrieking and wailing and the clank- 
ing chains of maniacs, and the curses and blas- 
phemy of the dungeon cells, all reveal the awful 
truths of its retribution and shame. It is like 
a Damascus blade; it cuts both ways. Like a 
sword of fate, it smites and pierces. Cain's mark 



244 Character Photography 

made him a fugitive. Achan's wedge of gold 
proved disastrous, and caused defeat. Ahab's 
and Jezebel's blood was licked by the dogs on 
the spot of their crime; and Ananias and Sap- 
phira were carried to early graves, smitten by 
the Holy Ghost, to whom they lied. Lord Byron 
passed away at thirty-five, sadly singing, 

"My days are in the yellow leaf." 

Benedict Arnold was the tool of the British; but 
they despised him for it; and Judas felt the scorn 
of the rulers when they said, "What is that to 
us?" The modern seducer who seeks his victim, 

"With smooth dissimulation, skilled to grace 
A devil's purpose, with an angel's face," 

degenerates into licentiousness, becomes venal, 
and in the end sells himself. Sin is an unnatural 
prodigy, the spurious offspring of lust. Nip it 
in the bud. 

"Arise and burst the slimy charms of fashion, 

Let the false worldling scorn thee if he will; 
Rise sunlike o'er the storms of worldly passion, 

And stem with fearless breast the tide of ill! 
Success shall crown each arduous endeavor, 

And from the strife thy soul rise great and free, 
And deeds give birth to deeds that roll forever, 

Wave after wave, o'er time's grand, azure sea." 



Defective Negatives 245 

Ruskin, in .his "Modern Painters," depicts 
the sad story of the marred image. He pictures 
"the evil diversity, and terrible stamp of vari- 
ous degradation; features seamed by sickness, 
dimmed by sensuality, convulsed by passion, 
pinched by poverty, shadowed by sorrow, 
branded with remorse; bodies consumed with 
sloth, broken down by labor, tortured by disease, 
dishonored in foul uses; intellects without power, 
hearts without hope, minds earthly and devilish; 
our bones full of the sins of our youth, the 
heaven revealing our iniquity, earth rising up 
against us, the roots dried up beneath, and the 
branches cut off above. Well for us only if, 
after beholding this our natural face in a glass, 
we desire not straightway to forget what man- 
ner of men we be." But he would have it "seek 
the outward image of beauty to undo the 
devil's work, to restore to the spirit the purity, 
and to the intellect the grasp it had in paradise." 
Milton truthfully says: 

"He that has light within his own clear breast, 
May sit i' th' center and enjoy bright day; 
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts, 
Benighted walks under the midday sun: 
Himself is his own dungeon." 



246 Character Photography 

We sometimes had strange and varied expe- 
riences when we were taking pictures among the 
Indians. They are quite averse to having a pic- 
ture taken. Sometimes we undertook it when 
we thought they were off guard, but we dis- 
covered when we tried to develop it that there 
were no features, or they were defective. They 
had thrown their blankets over their heads, or 
turned their backs. So thousands are refusing 
to get in the right focus of light, or turning their 
backs upon God's best opportunities, and they 
will find — alas ! when it is too late — their life pic- 
ture is blurred and blotted, and without essential 
features. The time is coming when every man's 
work will be tried as by fire. The chaff will be 
burned. The all-searching eye of Omnipotence 
shall scan the pages of history, and from the 
blotted and defective records of time he shall 
gather to himself the gems of beauty, which are 
to shine in resplendent beauty forever and for- 
ever, in the gallery of the skies. No defective 
portrait will be in that group. 



Chapter XVI 
FINISHING TOUCHES 



'The finest fruit earth holds up to its Maker is a finished 



"The nerve that never relaxes, the eye that never 
blanches, the thought that never wanders, — these are the 
masters of victory." 



T li 7"E come now to consider the toning-up 

* * process, the perfecting of the life-work, 
"the finishing touches." The workshop of char- 
acter is every-day life. Action is the law of 
success. Stagnation means death. 

"Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident, 
It is the very place God meant for thee; 
And should'st thou there small scope for action see, 
Do not for this give room for discontent; 
Nor let the time thou owest to God be spent 
In idly dreaming how thou mightest be, 
In what concerns thy spiritual life, more free 
From outward hindrance or impediment; 
For presently this hindrance thou shalt find, 
That without which all goodness were a task, 
So slight, that virtue never could grow strong." 

Ambition and aspiration stir the breast, the 
desire for pre-eminence is innate, it is as natural 
as the air we breathe. Take it out of life, and 
you make a man a dolt, a sluggard, a nonentity. 
The strong lion reposes in his lair if only his 
hunger is satisfied. The fierce tiger desires noth- 
ing more when gorged with the blood of his 
prey. But human aspiration reaches beyond 

that. It is the same from the alphabet of the 

249 



250 Character Photography 

nursery to the highest position of fame. We are 

endowed with aspirations sublime, with powers 

mysterious, with capabilities illimitable. Every 

structure responds to some chord or note in 

music, called the dominant. This predominant 

note must test our character. It puts it under a 

peculiar process to develop its fiber and show 

its mettle. It is a ruling, controlling motive, the 

master principle of action, the magnetic needle 

of the soul, the pole star of life. 

"One master passion in his breast, 
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest." 

Happy if this motive be pure and holy. The 
life will be destroyed if it is depraved and cor- 
rupt. An artist said to a friend, "How is it I do 
not paint as good as I did ten years ago?" "O 
yes, you do," was the reply; "but your taste is 
improving." It is the law of putting talent out 
at usury. The middle ranges of voice are cheap, 
but the addition of a single note above a certain 
register means fortune and worldwide fame. But 
to follow the eagle's flight we must have the 
eagle's wings. Cultivation of mental powers 
gives intellectual elevation, and results in a 
sharpening and quickening of all the faculties. 



Finishing Touches 251 

It gives enlarged and well-stored intellects, a 
delicate and properly-instructed taste, keen and 
accurate perception, and great analytical acu- 
men. Culture brings the nascent mind in con- 
tact with the source of intellectual power; it 
teaches it to explore, to grasp, and to fathom. 
Culture makes mental adepts, intellectual mil- 
lionaires. It is not only ornamental and esthetic, 
but it gives power, it gives skill and will. It is 
the alchemy that changes the possibilities into 
realities. It energizes intellect, and reveals the 
superiority of discipline over the crude and un- 
wrought. The uncultured mind is incrusted with 
prejudice, rilled with error, and practically open 
to the influence of groveling passion. The cul- 
tured mind becomes disentangled from these, 
and rises to a higher conception of life, and 
steadily and bravely pushes up the stream against 
the current. The influence of associations has 
much to do with giving the right touch to life. 
"Alexander, the son of a king, ought to keep 
good company." You can not expect to have 
pure and refined characters by association with 
the vicious and corrupt. Good companions are 
the necessary concomitants of success. We 



252 Character Photography 

should take as our prototypes and examples 
those whose lives shine resplendent in the luster 
of unsullied virtue. 

Another law is to know thyself. The best 
study for man is mankind. We should measure 
our own strength and test our own motives. An 
editor sent his own manuscript to himself. 
When returned it was marked: "Unavailable. 
Too discursive and trivial in its tone. Should 
have been elaborated with more care. Many 
passages not needed in the presentation of the 
idea. Contains promise, however, and the 
author is advised to try again." One of All- 
ston's pictures was brought to him after he had 
long forgotten it, and his opinion was asked as 
to the wisdom of the young artist persevering 
in his career. Allston advised his quitting it 
forthwith as hopeless. On the entrance gates to 
Cornell University, erected by Andrew D. White, 
the creative benefactor of the institution, is the 
following inscription: "So enter that daily thou 
mayest become more learned and thoughtful. 
So depart that daily thou mayest become more 
useful to thy country and mankind." Here is 
the thought of a focusing of energy and time. 



Finishing Touches 253 

The purpose is not sordid nor groveling, gross 
nor sensual. In the incentive to labor and 
achievement lies the embodiment of success. 
Through it is garnered the wealth of wisdom and 
learning. So it is not mere talent nor genius, 
however splendid, nor simply brilliant qualities, 
but high executive ability, which, linked with sin- 
cerity, will give the simplicity of character that 
will shine with undimmed luster through the 
ages. The only ambition worthy an immortal 
soul is the ambition to realize the purpose of 
God. "Be a good man, my dear," said Sir Wal- 
ter Scott to his son-in-law, as he lay on his death- 
bed. General Gordon, who gave up his life in 
his country's cause, added luster to his fame by 
the virtue of his life. His men were accustomed 
to seeing a white handkerchief at the door of his 
tent at certain hours, and knew that it meant he 
was not to be disturbed, for General Gordon was 
at prayer. Those silent hours developed the rug- 
gedness of his character, and gave him power 
with men. A friend of an undergraduate of Ox- 
ford, who cared more for a good time than for 
his studies, presented him with a lovely picture, 
and requested that he hang it on the wall of his 



254 Character Photography 

room. He did so, but it was surrounded by an 
incongruous medley of low sporting prints, and 
questionable pictures. For a time he was not 
conscious of the glaring contrast; but later on it 
worked a change. The old, low company dis- 
appeared, and instead came others in harmony 
with its beauty and purity. It shamed the others 
out of sight; it developed a better taste. In 
Rome may be seen the Apollo Belvidere. 
Twenty centuries ago it was taken from the Ital- 
ian quarries. It is beauty incarnate in sculptured 
stone. It has enkindled the enthusiasm of un- 
counted millions. But it had to be cut and fash- 
ioned. Every stroke of the artist's hammer, 
every splinter, every rasp of steel, meant effort. 
On and on, month by month, year by year, the 
artist chiseled until it was completed and lifted 
to its pedestal. Thus we labor. This clear 
knowledge of the necessity of perseverance under 
difficulties, at the same time not getting discour- 
aged with present failure, but being content to 
gain ground little by little, the effort itself count- 
ing for something, is one of the most helpful 
thoughts. Just as a little child learning to walk 
tries and falls, tries and falls again, yet every one 



Finishing Touches 255 

recognizes that each unsuccessful effort is really 
strengthening him for final mastery; so all true 
thought and endeavor, whether completed bril- 
liantly or not, is fashioning man's character 
towards ultimate perfection. 

A friend in Michael Angelo's studio remarked 
of a statue, "You have not changed this since 
I was here." "O, yes, I have removed a blemish 
from the limb, given a softer expression, a 
gentler look to the eye." An old college chum 
told in after years of his friend who would spend 
a day looking up phrases for their peculiar shades 
of meaning. It was partly meant as a jest,' but 
true enough to afford an explanation of the fact 
that the one to whom he referred was recognized 
as an unusually correct speaker, and seldom 
made a slip of the tongue. 

In the finishing touches the photographer 
takes out the freckles, and touches up the fea- 
tures. Life has its easy graces that give elegance 
and polish. The tones of the voice, the gentle- 
ness of manner, the grace of deportment, the 
delicate amenities of social life, — all are neces- 
sary. It is just as easy to cultivate the manners 
of a gentleman as to be a boor. All these things 



256 Character Photography 

act on the feelings and opinions of others. Yet 
the real life lies deeper than this, and the real 
purpose is for soundness of moral fiber, depths 
of conviction, a sound judgment, a conciliatory 
spirit, a far-seeing eye, a combination of qualities 
that manifest themselves in a life of noble, 
Christly deeds. There must be no insincerity, 
no equivocation, no evasion, no pretense, no 
falseness at the core of being. Surface beliefs 
accomplish nothing. They must take hold of the 
life, be all absorbing; not a mere garnishing or 
touching up, but a conviction that touches the 
depths, a sturdy defense of the right, a willing- 
ness to die for its defense if need be, courage 
with conviction. Spurgeon says, "A fly never 
lights on a red-hot stove." To put a fire on the 
top of an extinct volcano does not produce an 
eruption. There must be fire within. Convic- 
tion plows deep. It stirs the soul, it sets the 
heart on fire. Sincerity is one of the chief ele- 
ments. It lies at the basis of all. 

"I venerate the man whose heart is warm, 
Whose hands are pure, whose doctrines and whose life, 
Coincident, exhibit lucid proof 
That he is honest in the sacred cause. 
To such I render more than mere respect, 
Whose actions say that they respect themselves." 



Finishing Touches 257 

Deeper than all lies moral depravity. It 
must be taken out. A scientific journal gives 
a description of a process by which tattoo marks 
may be removed. Many a man or boy has 
thoughtlessly had his arms or hands tattooed, 
only in after years to realize that it could not 
be taken out. Thus lives are marked and stained 
by evil habits. 

A nun in an Italian convent once dreamed 
that an angel opened her spiritual eyes to see 
all men as they were. She looked upon so 
much uncleanness that she shrank back in hor- 
ror. But just then Christ appeared among 
them with bleeding wounds, and the nun saw 
that whosoever pressed forward and touched 
the blood of Jesus at once became as white as 
snow. It is so in every-day life. It was Jesus 
who cleansed that reformed drunkard from the 
plague of drink. A few months ago he was 
poor and an outcast; to-day he is respectable 
and respected. The grace of God cleanses the 
character by changing the conduct. 

"If Christ were here to-night, I 'd touch the hem 
Of his fair, seamless robe, and stand complete 
In wholeness and in whiteness; I, who stem 
Such waves of pain, to kneel at his dear feet." 
17 



258 Character Photography 

We echo also the words of another: 

"I need thee, precious Jesus, 
For I am full of sin; 
My soul is dark and guilty, 
My heart is dead within. 

I need the cleansing fountain 

Where I can always flee, 
The blood of Christ most precious, 

The sinner's perfect plea. 

I need thee, precious Jesus, 

I need a friend like thee; 
A friend to soothe and pity, 

A friend to care for me. 

I need the heart of Jesus, 

To feel each anxious care, 
To tell my every trouble, 

And all my sorrows share." 

He not only cleanses, but touches into a spir- 
itual beauty. Here is a piece of canvas of tri- 
fling value. An artist takes it, and draws a few 
lines and figures. Then, with his brush, he 
touches in certain colors, and it is worth thou- 
sands of dollars, and of matchless beauty. So God 
takes our worthless, ruined lives that have been 
repulsive, because blackened, blurred, and stained 
by sin, and with the finger of love touches them 
into beauty, painting the Divine image upon 



Finishing Touches 259 

them. Beauty is an excellent gift of God. 
The highest and best development of beauty is 
along the lines of righteousness, the beautiful, 
and pure. Vice and sin are ugly and unlovely. 
They distort the forms of beauty. The passion 
for true beauty can only be satisfied by religion. 
It gives the artist soul; it lifts above the crude 
and incomplete; it develops and enlarges those 
attributes of the soul that are essentially artistic. 
The coarse and crude have no part in it. It 
works in the face the refinement of beauty, 
an inward, abiding beauty. This is wrought 
out by the Spirit of God. As a sculptor chis- 
els an angel out of the block of marble, as an 
artist touches the picture into perfection, so the 
Spirit works out the ideal that is pure, lovely, 
and spiritual. As the deformities and infirmities 
are overcome, we become more spiritually 
esthetic, and the sublimity of moral beauty 
waxes brighter and brighter, and becomes more 
intensely glowing, so we are changed from glory 
to glory, until we stand before him, a perfectly 
beautified soul. Ponce De Leon, the Spanish 
adventurer, sought long and earnestly for the 
mythological fountain of youth, but all in vain. 



260 Character Photography 

Its source is not in the things of time. We mis- 
take if we so judge. Man's ultimate happiness 
and perfection do not depend upon some elixir 
that will keep him young. The essence of liv- 
ing lies deeper than that. This life is rather a 
state of embryo, a preparation for life. A man 
is not completely born until he has passed 
through death. And the soul that fully realizes 
this, fixes its eye on higher attainments and the 
realities of another world. Like the carrier- 
pigeon on the homeward journey, nothing will 
swerve it aside. 

"Straight to my home above 
I travel calmly on." 

"I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy 
likeness." 

In heaven we shall receive the finishing 
touches. 



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